View Larger Image |
Fireworks Actors: Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto Director: Takeshi Kitano Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Letterbox Format: Color, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 99 minutes Studio: New Yorker Films Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2000-07-11 Buy from Amazon |
|
From Amazon.com essential video A superstar and cultural icon in his native Japan, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano has conquered more than one medium, but he is best known in the West for his remarkable films. Among those, Fireworks is the clear favorite, a taut and enigmatic noir that fluctuates between perfect stillness and savage eruptions of violence. Kitano plays a cop named Nishi, a determinedly impassive man whose face occasionally ripples with an involuntary tic, hinting at the explosive but contained forces within. Nishi's wife (Kayato Kishimoto) is dying of leukemia, a disease that already killed their child, and he cares for her with a shattering tenderness. While on a stakeout, Nishi takes a break to check in on her, and while he's gone his partner is crippled and another officer is killed. With death hovering at home and a score to settle outside, Kitano's hero sets off on an isolated course to seek justice. Few filmmakers have understood as well as Kitano has here the irresistible draw of a thriller told with a moody calmness, with an eye toward graceful construction and rigorous composition. The careful, unhurried dispensing of story information also helps keep the focus on Nishi's warrior soul, on his mysterious capacity for the extremes of gentleness and brutality. The story here is the way one man can be the sum of such bold contradictions, and a great story it is. --Tom Keogh |
 "Haiku + .45 Semi Automatic = Hana Bi"Simply stated, the most important film of the 1990's; probably of the last twenty years. The film is in its entirety a meditative experience, combining a slow and calm build-up of chi or prana-force-energy with explosive violence. Beat Takeshi's violence, however, is not gratuitous, but righteous anger in action. As a schizoid world falls down around him, Takeshi takes the role of Samurai -- indeed, "such a man was already Samurai." This is a film of mystery, of soft color and light ocean breezes from the South China Sea, and of poetry. If the warrior immortalized in Book of Five Rings or Gitopanishad has an equivalent in modern times, surely it would be in this strange character, this Japanese-style Colonel Kurtz in Hana-Bi. But then, you must watch this film for yourself. You will not be the same person when it is over. "An incredible film..."There isn't much that can be said about this movie that hasn't already been said. Suffice it to say that Fireworks is definitely worth all five stars. Fireworks is overall the perfect movie, a must if you're a Kitano fan, and absolutely worth purchasing just to see what makes Kitano so good. The stories of quite a few men are drawn together by their occupation, the shared pain, opportunities of love, family, etc. The ending of this film is what really stuck with me, and wondering what life would be like for the paralyzed cop after he found out what his partner had done. Ahhh...such a great movie. A Kitano masterpiece. "Outstanding movie, but this DVD is CUT!!!!!"Fireworks (released internationally as "Hana-Bi") was the seventh film directed by Takeshi Kitano, Japanese comedian, novelist, essayist, short story writer, poet, critic, musician, cartoonist, painter and filmaker. Kitano (always credited as "Beat" Takeshi as an actor) wrote the screenplay and stars as Nishi, a tough cop struggling to cope with the recent death of his daughter while caring for his leukemia stricken wife. One day, at his partner's urging, he takes a break from a stakeout to visit his wife at the nearby hospital where she's being treated. In his absence, things go terribly wrong; his partner is left crippled and another officer is killed. Kitano plays Nishi like a man holding the weight of the world on his shoulders, struggling to maintain composure in the wake of a tragedy that has shattered the lives of people close to him. The quiet dignity with which he carries himself is compromised only by an occasional facial tic, which we see while he listens to his ex-partner reveal that his family abandoned him after the shooting and later when the dead officer's widow pours her heart to him about the emotional and financial difficulties of raising her daughter alone. Hoping to make his wife's final days more pleasant, he borrows money from a local Yakuza, but when he falls behind on the interest payments, he becomes the subject of harrassment and threats. Determined to correct everything that's gone wrong, Nishi decides to rob a bank to pay back the Yakuza and take care of his wife, ex-partner and the widow of the slain officer. The situation escalates out of control, resulting in an understated, but powerful climax. This film won the Golden Lion award for Best Picture at the 1997 Venice International Film Festival and propelled Kitano to the forefront of Japanese cinema. It's considered by many critics and fans to be Kitano's best movie, though I consider his 2002 release "Dolls" (unavailable on U.S. DVD) to be a strong contender for that distinction. Now, the problem with this DVD. The transfer itself is fine. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with clear, well translated subtitles and some nice features. However, the disc is inexplicably missing aproximately 4 minutes of footage. Why a company like New Yorker Films, which specializes in art house releases, would release a truncated version of such a seminal work, is anyone's guess, but American companies have not been kind to Kitano's works. Any DVD released stateside of his films has a much better version overseas. I strongly urge anyone interested in this film to look for the uncut Korean special edition DVD (under the original title "Hana-Bi"), which is NTSC and region free (despite being labled Region 3 on the box)), so it will play on any North American DVD player. It has excellent subtitles and even costs a few dollars less than the incomplete American version. "One of the greatest films of all times"Disturbingly violent, poetic and touching. The very essence of Kitanos work.  "sweet"a video full of fireworks. this may also teach you just how to blow your apartment ceiling off, so you you will have some head space |
