I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Who payed the critics

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Underlying message of the movie is to not let bad seeds, doubters, downers, and peer pressure hamper your progress to become great -- they are tests to see if you have what it takes to push forwardKitano's comeback film after his suicide attempt Follows two friends from high school who bullied kids . One fateful day they get jumped by a boxer and decide to adjust their lifestyles with the heart (some passionate some timid) of champions

In Takeshi Kitano's 1996 semi-autobiographical film Kids Return, his first since a motorcycle accident (suicide attempt) in 1995 left him close to death, the Japanese education system comes in for a thrashing. Masaru (Kenichi Kaneko) and his buddy, Shinji (Masanobu Ando) know how to have a good time. Not to be bothered with such fruitless endeavors like going to school and learning something useful, they would rather clown around, harass teachers, bully younger students and shake them down for money, sneak into porn theatres, perform stand-up comedy (manzai) routines, or set fire to a teacher's brand new car - just good, clean fun.As they say in the vernacular "what goes around comes around" and the coming around this time is in the form of a friend of one of the bullied students who unfortunately for the boys is a skilled street fighter. Their encounter turns their attention to a boxing gym where they give up on school and train for revenge against the oppressor. Unfortunately, Shinji is the only one who shows any talent for boxing and he begins to climb in the estimation of "The President." Masura, on the other hand, gives up and joins a menacing yazuka gang. Shinji passively follows an older, cynical boxer who teaches him some illegal tricks to succeed in the ring as well as some strange ways to lose weight.Things work well for a time until both of the lads crash and burn and realize how much better it is just to hang out and be happy than actually do something constructive. Meanwhile, a gentle boy named Reiko (Atsuki Ueda), marries his perennial sweetheart Sachiko (Yuko Daike) but decides to pass on college. He gets a job in a corporation which doesn't work out and he is soon eking out a living as a taxi driver, a depressing sequence which seems to be in the film for no reason other than to show us how the education system failed again.Kids Return is a very well done film with some excellent boxing scenes and a few good laughs, but there does not seem to be any lessons learned here. While we have to cut Shinji and Masura some slack because, after all, they are just kids and they may be a tongue-in-cheek stand-in for Kitano's own adolescence, what Kids Return is trying to say with all of this is a head-scratcher – maybe it's just that boys will be boys.

So many things in this film are so well done. There is the nicely written and told story, the very suitable cast, the perfectly composed music and, of course, the excellent direction.It was, from my point of view, a very good idea to have a variety of protagonists who are all, in some way, related to each other: all of them are just about to leave school and look for an adequate and fulfilling life. Some of them succeed, and some fail. Now the feat was to link all these single story lines together and make one film out of it. And Kitano really succeeded in this sector. And again this film has a lot of autobiographical elements in it. Kitano's own past as a delinquent or comedian for example.The music was again a real pleasure. Joe Hisashi really knows his craft to compose very fitting melodies, which always remind me of old Japanese folk songs, and use them perfectly timed in Kitano's films.If you've seen other Kitano movies and missed this one, you will definitely like it. For those who want to try out a Kitano film for the first time: watch it! It will be a very contemplative and rewarding experience.

Kids return was never given theatrical release in the US, probably because Takeshi doesn't actually act in it, and it doesn't focus on Yakuza. Despite this, it is one of his finest films, and definitely among his most accessible.Made during his recovery from a motorcycle accident, the film focuses on a group of highschool students as they prepare to enter into the adult world. The two lead characters are Shinji and Masaru, delinquent losers who are looked down upon by their teachers, and feared by their classmates. After they're set up by the administration and thrown out of school, they fall into amateur boxing and embark onto different paths. We follow not only the two hoods, but their classmates as well, at they all enter into various occupations, trying to become adults and live a good life, and for one reason or another, failing.All this seems fairly conventional until you remember that it was written and directed by Beat Takeshi,who lends it his trademark melancholy sense of style, and injects the script with just enough irony and pathos that it resonates. On a technical level, this is one of Takeshi's finest achievements. I've often felt that in his other works, his simple still frame compositions and slow editing rhythms didn't quite synch with the material, almost as if they resulted more from not knowing what to do with the camera than any kind of personal vision. Here he proves me wrong. Kids Return is directed by a man with a confident and assured hand: the shots, while still easy identifiable as "Kitano-esque" (can we just coin that now), are framed with a poetic eye, fusing themselves to the material to lend it the perfect sense of mood. The editing is smooth, craftsmanlike, aided greatly, as always, by the brilliant music of Jo Hisaishi.The real difference here, though, is the writing. Kitano forgoes his usual rambling improvisational scene construction for a work that is very structured. The plot is circular, and the kids' lives are given a clear step by step descent into nothingness with an edge of Aristotalean inevitability thrown in. The result is something that is not only more coherent, but somehow also manages to be more naturalistic than his other films. Again, Takeshi's hand is still felt: from the affectionately stupid pranks of the leads to the recurring appearance of a twin comedy group, who banter in the style Kitano's own "The Two Beats." But it's organized, more confident. He knows what he wants to say, and how he wants to say it.The acting is uniformly great, with Masanobu Ando (a long way from his almost demonic role as Kiriyama in Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale) a definite standout as Shinji. With little to no dialogue, he still manages to convey a sense of likeability and character. Ken Kaneko plays the more garish of the two, but still maintains the air of innocence that the part requires. There are also fun cameos from Takeshi regulars Ryo Ishibashi (who, happily, is spared any nasty encounters with a piano wire), Ren Osugi, and Susumu Terajima. Perhaps the ultimate compliment to the actors, and to the film itself, is that we don't seeing the man himself on-screen. There's no doubt that Takeshi has one of the brightest, larger than life, screen presences in all of cinema. He so dominates the movies he acts in that they would fall apart without him there. Kids Return, however, stands alone with a strength that seems to almost grow with his absence.Final moments bring our kids back to the school ground where they grow up and the summation given by Masaru transcends the events beforehand in a way that would have made even Ozu proud. Where do you go when you've got nothing to look forward to, and the entire rest of your life still left to live? Kitano's encounter with death has somehow made him even more pessimistic, but at least he came out with something to say.