Takeshi Kitano's Fireworks (Hana-Bi), Page 2
A New Genre
In
Japan, Takeshi Kitano is best known as a comedian and for his TV presence on
game shows. This is almost impossible to believe after watching him in this
carefully constructed, lovingly filmed movie, which he wrote, directed, edited,
and acted in. There is humor in Fireworks, especially in the scenes between
Mr. Nishi and his dying wife, but it is of the most understated and gentle kind,
and it would hardly register if it wasn't set in such strong relief to the merciless
violence encountered elsewhere in the film. Beat Takeshi, as he calls himself
in his acting incarnation, has made seven other movies, among them the glowlingly
reviewied Sonatine, Boiling Point, and Violent Cop, and I know
I will indulge in all of these hidden treasures very soon.
The DVD of this film features the Japanese and American trailers, actor profiles, a "making-of" featurette, as well as a gallery of paintings that appear in the film, which were done by, believe it or not, Takeshi Kitano.
As a side note, it is quite educational to see how this movie is completely misrepresented in America by its packaging and marketing. The DVD case is not ashamed to compare Kitano to Charles Bronson, and from the trailer and blurbs, you would think that it is nothing but a shoot-em-up flick. This does nobody a favor: anybody interested in the movie's quieter, poetic and more honest parts will doubtlessly be turned off by the bullets-and-blood marketing, and Charles Bronson fans are likely to find themselves bored. Why do American distributors still feel they have to underestimate their audience in order to move their product?
With this movie, Takeshi Kitano has created something of a new genre, a hybrid between elegiac meditation on life and death and the violent Yakuza movies that were Tarantinoesque long before there was a Quentin Tarantino. The result of the jarring juxtaposition of slow moving and gorgeous images of the sea, flowers, paintings, and expensive cars full of dead gangsters in snowy landscapes with quick, loud, brutal scenes of carnage is nothing short of sublime. The fusion of the two with a haunting soundtrack makes for an overwhelming cinematic experience that digs at the riddle of how life and death intertwine. If you haven't yet, be smarter than me and don't wait any longer to see this film.
pictures courtesy of New Yorker Films/Office Kitano
