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Kitano himself plays weary Tokyo cop Nishi, an impassive-faced detective in hock to yakuza mobsters, toughened by a career in violence (at one point he takes out an attacker's eye with a chopstick, an assault so swiftly edited one barely has time to register it). Nishi's Achilles-heel is his love for his wife Miyuki (Kayoko Kishimoto) who is dying of cancer, following their late daughter to the grave. When Nishi leaves a stakeout to attend to her in hospital, a colleague, Horibe (Ren Osugi) is paralysed in the ensuing shootout. Nishi, guilt-stricken, goes on the run with Miyuki, taking her to beauty spots to enjoy simple pleasures like kite-flying and picnics before she dies, although the yakuza are never far behind. Meanwhile, Horibe takes up painting, and discovers in the process a calming new vocation (the na&239;ve, disturbing and strangely beautiful images are by Kitano himself, painted after he had his own near-fatal experience in a motorcycle accident).
The cumulative effect is a profoundly moving and enigmatic movie, one that discreetly withholds many of the narrative crutches--backstory, motivation--you would expect from a conventional Hollywood movie with the same story. It's not surprising Kitano is so drawn to characters teeming with contradictions, given that his own career seems so bi-polar on paper: he started out a television presenting clown, and his move into glowering policiers represented an image volte-face as surprising to Japanese audiences as it would be if Dale Winton had started making Scorsese-style gangster movies. His comic sensibility shines through in spots in Hana-Bi, even more so in the broad comedy Kikujiro. Considered by many critics Kitano's best film, Hana-Bi^'s power is augmented by Hideo Yamamoto's lapidary cinematography, and Jo Hisaishi's lush, string-laden score. --Leslie Felperin
Winner at the Venice Film Festival in 1997, Hana-Bi, 'Fireworks', is a story of emotions and feelings done the only way Kitano 'Beat' Takeshi knows how.
He never loses his control on the audience managing to keep your attention right up to the closing finale. It's full of romance, guilt, sadness, loneliness and passion with a haunting and unique score by Joe Hisaishi, a brilliant composer who can direct an orchestra just as aptly as Kitano can a film crew.
This film will leave you breathless and reaching for the replay button the moment the credits start to roll.
My wife watched the whole film with me, a rarity I can tell you, and she usually does not like these films, but even she had to admit how good it was. It is a fantastic story well acted and superbly directed. I masterpiece of Japanese cinema any fan, or non fan, should place pride of thier collection.
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