Stars: 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Susumu Terajima

Director: 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano

Summary: Takeshi Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi, writes, directs and stars in this beautiful lament of a film. Kitano stars as a retired cop who turns to crime to raise the money to take his dying wife on one last trip. Low on dialogue, HANA-BI is a meditation on guilt, loyalty, and death.

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The ideal starter movie for those who wish to familiarise themselves with the work of the paradoxical Japanese auteur, Hana-Bi(the word means "fireworks" in Japanese) is an echtexample of "Beat"'s Takeshi Kitano's distinctive brand of existential crime thrillers. Like Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Sonatineor his LA-set Brother, Hana-Bijuxtaposes shocking bursts of violence with reflective moments of lyricism, setting up a slap-caress-slap rhythm that's as disquieting as it is addictive.

Kitano himself plays weary Tokyo cop Nishi, an impassive-faced detective in hock to yakuzamobsters, 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 yakuzaare 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

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	Japanese
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Documentary, Trailer
Subtitles:	English
Year:	1997
Release Date:	February 26, 2001
Runtime:	99 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	M P 040 D
Keywords:	Action, General, Adventure, Fireworks, Bi, Hana
Genre:	Action/Adventure