Takeshi Kitano

Kayoko Kishimoto

Ren Osugi

Susumu Terajima

Tetsu Watanabe

Hakuryu

Yasuei Yakushiji

Tarô Itsumi

Kenichi Yajima

Makoto Ashikawa

Yuko Daike

Tsumami Edamame

Yûrei Yanagi

Sujitarô Tamabukuro

Tokio Seki

Motoharu Tamura

Hitoshi Nishizawa

Hiromi Kikai

Shoko Kitano

Yoshiyuki Morishita

Junichiro Asano

Kazuhiro Osada

Manzō Shinra

Tetsu Sakuma

Riba Matsumi

Miki Fujitani

Keiko Yamamoto

Kiyoko Kitazawa

Ai Kishina

Banri Nakamura

Masahiro Naya

Takayuki Konishi

Yûzô Yada

Kanji Tsuda

Yôichi Nagai

Kôsuke Ôta

Muhômatsu

Omiya no Matsu

Shiyô Kosuga

Gambino Kobayashi

Al Kitago

Yûji Aikawa

Hiroshi Umeda

Kenji Yamagami

Tomoya Naitô

Katsuya Takamatsu

Yasufumi Sakamaki

Atsushi Ito

Mitsuyo Ishigaki

Ayako Masuya

Sumiko Takai

Mariko Chiba

Miho Kitahara

Yoshiko Andô

Kaoru Sugiyama

Kikuo Itô

Shûji Ôtsuki

Hidetoshi Kawaya

Koichiro Hama

Masaru Takahashi

Ritsuyo Ono

Yôko Imamoto

Kiyoko Negishi

Saki Kaneko

Kaoru Tomoe

Ayu Nakagawa

Maiko Watanabe

Kazue Fujita

Yuki Iida

Rieko Motohashi

Ryôta Koyama

Takao Toji

Matsumi Fuku

Yasushi Tsuge

Yoshinori Ota

Takio Yoshida

Masayuki Mori

Hideo Yamamoto

Hikozo Akamatsu

Norihiro Isoda

Tatsuo Ozeki

Senji Horiuchi

Hiroshi Shimizu

Hiroshi Ishikawa

Akira Nakano

Masashi Furuya

Joe Hisaishi

Crime

Drama

HANA-BI

Bandai Visual

Office Kitano

TV Tokyo

Tokyo FM

Japan

日本語

Fireworks

Drop Dead.

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

There's greatness in there, for sure, but <em>'Fireworks'</em> (or, the better title, <em>'Hana-bi'</em>) drags on for too long.

I was with it for the first 45-55 minutes, but the final portion of the film really dragged for me; aside from a few moments, it kinda just repeats the same sorta scenes over and over. Like, personally, I got it... needed a bit more to it, in my opinion.

There are some very good performances, no doubt. Takeshi Kitano is the obvious star of the show, though I was also impressed by Ren Osugi - who is just as excellent as the aforementioned writer, producer and director of this 1997 flick. The support cast are solid, while everything onscreen looks neat too.

I did like this overall, but I can't say it hit me as much as it evidently has for others. Worth a watch, either way.

CinemaSerf

You wouldn't want to be policeman "Nishi" (Takeshi Kitano). His young child died a few years earlier, his wife is terminally ill in hospital and his partner at work takes a bullet that renders him paraplegic. Unsurprisingly, he hits the skids a bit and his priorities become compromised. When his wife is told she can come home, he is determined to make that happen - but where will the money come from to facilitate her? Well he goes and borrows some money from some unsavoury types he has encountered in his career. With his sole raison d'être now being to spend as much time as he can with his ailing wife, some of his other decisions become more and more dubious and requiring of increasingly dangerous and violent action as his creditors demand repayment - in cash or in kind. This is really quite an effective mix of the romantic and the brutal. It illustrates the vulnerability of even the most robust of human beings when touched by tragedy and despair - and when that person is a cunning and capable killer, these risks for all become ever more exacerbated. There's not a great deal of dialogue here, it's mostly Kitano reacting to and dealing with the scenarios he faces trying to sustain that sense of stability and to deal with his crescendo of guilt and it's quite enthralling at times to watch. It does plod along a little at times, and can also be repetitive but it's a different style of dark drama that shows us an human side of someone not motivated by power, or money, or revenge.

New UK Trailer

Hana-Bi - Trailer - (1997) - HQ

Fireworks

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