Hana-bi, released in the United States as Fireworks, is a 1997 Japanesecrime drama film written, directed and edited by Takeshi Kitano, who also stars in it. The film's score was composed by Joe Hisaishi in his fourth collaboration with Kitano. Hana-bi is the Japanese word for "fireworks." The unexpected international success of Hana-bi, coupled with Sonatine's critical acclaim, established Kitano as one of the foremost Japanese filmmakers of his time.
Synopsis
Yoshitaka Nishi is a violent police detective who had to retire from the police after a tragic accident during a detention: another detective, Tanaka, was killed by the suspect, while two other detectives, Nakamura and Horibe, were severely injured. Becoming unemployed, Nishi spends most of his time taking care of his sick wife Miyuki, who has leukemia. To pay for his wife's care, Nishi borrows money from the yakuza, but is having difficulty repaying them. Meanwhile, Horibe, whom the accident left in a wheelchair, experiences a deep depression. His marriage quickly breaks up, so now he lives alone. In a conversation with Nishi, Horibe hints he considered committing suicide, while adding that he would like to paint but cannot afford to buy himself the necessary materials. Nishi buys him the art supplies, mailing them to him. Horibe then takes up painting and creates surrealisticworks of art eventually in a pointillist style. Nishi buys a second-hand taxi cab and repaints it in police colors. He arms himself with a revolver and robs a bank dressed as a policeman. Using the money, he pays off the yakuza and gives some to Tanaka's widow. Nakamura learns about the gift for Tanaka's widow, advising her to keep the money. He also learns about the paints for Horibe and soon understands who committed the robbery. Meanwhile, even though he has paid his debt to them, the yakuza guess who may be behind the robbery, the yakuza thugs chase Nishi to extort additional money from him. Eventually, the gangsters find Nishi, but he kills them all in a violent shootout. At the same time, Nishi is found by Nakamura and a second detective, who want to arrest Nishi for the robbery. Nishi asks Nakamura to spare him a moment of time and sits down on the beach next to his wife. Two gunshots are heard off camera, but the film doesn't reveal who was shot.
Horibe takes up painting in the pointillist style in order to compensate for his paralysis. In reality, these paintings were painted by Kitano himself, whilst in recovery from an infamous motorcycle accident in August 1994 that left half of his face paralyzed. Kitano's daughter and former singer, Shoko Kitano, makes a cameo appearance playing a nameless girl flying a kite in the film's closing scenes. The film's title is sometimes listed as "Hana-bi", "hana-bi" or "Hanabi" on the covers of international DVD releases and other references to the film in the West. However, the official title is actually HANA-BI, fully capitalized, and is used on all Japanese licensed products, including theatrical posters, video covers and OST covers.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack CD was first released in 1998 and 1999 by Milan Records, then reissued by Polydor.
Although it was not a big success financially, Hana-bi received critical acclaim and won the Golden Lion award at the 54th Venice International Film Festival and numerous other accolades. Kitano himself said it was not until he won the Golden Lion that he was accepted as a serious director in his native Japan; his prior films had been looked at as just the hobby of a famous comedian. It also won the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 95% of 20 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 8.3 out of 10. American film criticRoger Ebert rated it three stars out of four, citing its unusual approach toward serenity and brutality, calling it "a Charles BronsonDeath Wish movie so drained of story, cliché, convention and plot that nothing is left, except pure form and impulse." Jaime N. Christley of Slant Magazine gave the film a perfect four star rating. David Stratton of The Movie Show called Hana-bi "an unclassifiable film" and "quite extraordinary," with co-host Margaret Pomeranz stating "I was ultimately so moved by it. It did what cinema is meant to do, for me anyway, and that's take me on a journey that is mine, that ultimately ends up inside me, in my heart." Stratton concluded that Hana-bi is "hard to describe to audiences, but all I can say is: Go and see it. It's great." The duo both awarded the film five stars out of five. The film is included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
