Fireworks (1998)

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

Let's be realistic.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A very likeable film. I must have first seen it on video and then caught up with most of those he made before it and some after. In many ways a gentle and amusing film with a great big heart but there are still those moments of horrendous, sudden and terrifying violence. As he takes his wife on the final trip there are flash backs to the most violent of acts that more or less ended his involvement in the police but there is more violence to come as events catch up. Beautifully directed with measured and breathtaking photography and complex characterisation managed seemingly without effort. Takes is a multi faceted artist and has created some of the truly great films of the last twenty years and certainly some of the finest recent Japanese of which this is a marvellous example. So much of present day Japan is encapsulated within this modest film probably because it all seems to come so naturally to this unassuming oriental gentleman.

Hana-bi (AKA: Fireworks) is written and directed by Takeshi Kitano. It stars Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi and Susumu Terajima. Music is by Joe Hisaishi and cinematography by Hideo Yamamoto.Yoshikata Nishi (Kitano) is a loose cannon police detective who quits the force after a tragic incident results in his partner, Horibe (Osugi), being confined to a wheelchair. His retirement brings him the time to care more for his seriously ill wife Miyuki (Kishimoto). Nishi can find no peace, though, more so as he has borrowed money from the Yakuza to pay for his wife's needs, and they are growing impatient for the repayment...Very early in Kitano's superb slice of Japanese neo-noir there is a piece of graffiti on the wall, it says "Drop Dead", while Hisaishi's music is a devilish accompaniment to the scene. It's ominous and foreboding, setting the tone for what is to follow. Pic is deliberately paced, beautifully so, with the opening nonlinear approach and scattergun shifts in time adding a sort of psychological maelstrom to the impending narrative darkness.Yet to suggest it as a perpetually bleak picture is doing it a small disservice, for Kitano (himself working from a damaged psyche that occurred in real life) has this adroit eye for poetic beauty and human tenderness that marries up with bursts of violence and emotionally shattering passages of play. And it works brilliantly, with stabs of humour also filtering in via the outer frames. Nishi the character is a force of nature and a walking - brooding - contradiction, a man pained behind his sunglasses, his expressionless visage amazingly still saying so much. When he explodes the impact is doubly strong, mainly because dialogue is so sparse, but the interwoven visuals - very much a Kitano speciality - strike an almighty chord for the story. To which we edge towards the finale, which unsurprisingly brings beauty and infinite sadness.Unfussy camera work, sabre sharp editing (Kitano & Yoshinori Oota), elegiacal musical arrangements, art, kites and Kitano's intense performance, this rounds out as film making greatness. In fact, a masterpiece. 10/10

Takeshi Kitano not only writes, acts in, directs and edits this meaningful fable, he also paints the artworks that are a strong element of the film. Kitano is supposedly known for his violence, but this movie has more to do about the repercussion of violence--and about life and death in general--than showing actual violent scenes. The violence is there, bursts of explosive violence, but it is short and strategically edited.Nishi, the protagonist, sees his partners die or get injured in the line of duty. One of them, Horibe, becomes wheel-chair-bound. His wife leaves him and he contemplates life and death staring at the horizon beyond the sea. He starts to paint to express himself and save himself from boredom and sorrow. Nishi, sick of his work leaves the police force to spend some time with his dying wife. The doctor just released her from the hospital and she does not have much time left...Kitano chooses to focus on the underlying emotions rather than dialogue as most of the scenes with his wife are silent. At first, this is unnerving, but slowly, as the movie progress, we understand that there is nothing left to stay.The score of the movie is its strongest point. Accomplished composer, Joe Hisaishi (who worked with Kitano on other projects as well as with Miyazaki's animated films) outdoes himself with poignant classical music that, unlike Nishi, speaks volume. He would win the Award of the Japanese Academy for this.Some good cinematography can also be observed at times. Kitano's paintings are interesting and vibrant. They add yet another level of complexity to this intriguing piece of film. All in all, a very well made film.

So, it has come to this. In the top-rated comment on this flick, somebody says "Nishi is an honorable man". Really? This is a guy who mainly kills and maims people in the movie. He takes a short break to rob a bank. Honorable? How would you like your kids to go to school with the kids of someone who calls that honorable? Wait, there's more! The person also says "we can tell he's constantly thinking." How can we do that? Well, do you know that joke "How can you tell when a CEO/politician/lawyer is lying?" ... "His/her lips move." Well, Nishi's lips never move, so I guess that means he is thinking.Of course, this is existentialism to warm the hearts of the cult of victimization. Existentalism supposedly stresses that an individual take responsibility for the consequences of one's acts. Not Nishi. Borrow money from the yakuza. What, they want it back? Kill them. The cops find out. Kill yourself and your wife.Really honorable.