A strikingly styled and uncompromising debut, consciously financed independently from private means and made with a small and young crew.Kikuchi tells the story of the youth Kikuchi who lives alone. The film follows him in his monotonous work in a dry cleaner’s and during the solitary evenings in his room in front of the television. Through the silent and lonely Kikuchi, Iwamoto comments on contemporary Japan which is so characterised by far-reaching individualisation. The boy is unable to make contact. He is in love with a girl who works in a supermarket, but he doesn’t dare speak to her. Night after night he observes her in the flat where she lives. On the only day in the week he doesn’t have to go to the dry cleaner’s, he washes his own clothes in the launderette opposite the supermarket where the girl works.Using purely visual means, Iwamoto succeeds in transforming the drudgery of Kikuchi’s life into exciting shots. Tony Rayns (Sight & Sound) described the style and mood of the film as follows: ‘If the young David Lynch had directed Jeanne Dielman, the result would have been something like Iwamoto’s film: minimalism meets surrealism at the dry cleaner’s.’ The film is virtually silent. The sound track was made separately from the film. The lack of dialogue emphasises the loneliness of the young man. Iwamoto tells his story only with the mise-en-scène; a trial of virtuoso ingenuity, which is revealed in the thrift and sobriety. Many scenes consist of lengthy single shots. Under the still surface, the repressed aggression is palpable.
