Hana-bi (1997)

According to the English DVD cover, "Hana-bi" (firework) is a word that entails both life and death; as 'hana' stands for flower while 'bi' stands for fire. Fittingly, images of colourful flowers and outstretched guns linger in the mind after the watching of "Hanabi", a poetic tale of how the course of life is shaped by the reality of death. Set over a beautiful score by the masterful Hisaishi Jō, the film is unexpectedly subdued and often near-silent except for sudden bursts of violence that are emphasised by their sporadic nature. Probably because he instigates this violence, the extremes of the film are embodied in Kitano's Nishi, an enigmatic character who is capable of both tenderness and brutality. However, the former quality seems to win out, as "Hanabi" is more about benevolence than it is about shootouts and chopsticks in eyes. Faced with disability and terminal illness or hounded by Yakuza, the characters do not dwell on these burdens but instead try to live out their damaged lives to the best of their abilities. And so should you.

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I was told to watch this first

If you read Takeshi Kitano's bio, you may have observed that everyone knows him for his movies and the Japanese know him as a comedian. Well, I'm not even Japanese and I first knew him as Count Takeshi for a sporty and humorous TV show Japanese show from the 80s with a parodic dubbing. This guy, who is a cinephile and has followed Takeshi's movies, recommended me to watch Hana-bi before any other one because it was for "non-initiated" so I'm guessing two things: this is going to be the mild version of weird for a Takeshi movie and this is A cult film.

It feels as if the movie was very simple and extremely dramatic and sad at the same time and it will continue like that until the very last second. The main music was very beautiful and I loved the symbolism and artistic expressions in it. Sometimes, in some scenes, I got reminded of Tarantino or Scorcese as how spontaneous and surprising they were. I got startled several times and felt relaxed at others. It was as if Takeshi put a spell of some sort because it wasn't boring at all despite your tipical Japanese still-life quietness (don't forget you could get startled). It doesn't have a higher score because there are things to improve on (maybe in the other movies, Takeshi has evolved in one or another direction, this is supposedly the mild version of Takeshi as director).

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