Hana-Bi (1997)Hana-Bi can be seen as the pinnacle of Kitano's gangster films to date, a fact that is implied in its title. Hanabi is the Japanese word for 'fireworks', but Kitano has separated it here into its constituent parts: Hana (meaning 'flowers') and bi ('fire'). The dualism is obvious; it is a film about peace versus violence, powerful opposites coming together, the 'flowers' of love and understanding (a common visual motif in the film) and the 'fire' of repressed rage and sudden violence. Tony Rayns, writing in Sight and Sound (the official magazine of the British Film Institute) in August 1998, said the following about the film:The effect of [Kitano's] cross-cutting, which has only the slimmest of narrative pretexts, is to push the film towards a symbolic level, on which [the two protagonists] are less distinct individuals than embodiments of contrasted responses to personal catastrophes. In aesthetic terms it is a great leap from Sonatine and the complex editing reflects this; it is a very subjective film, the cutting becoming a part of Nishi's state of mind. The opening sequence highlights this brilliantly and is discussed more in Blood, Guns and Baseball. Hana-Bi is a truly unique film and Kitano has seemingly found his niche and is more confident experimenting with new editing styles. It is also my personal favourite of his films due to its almost perfect synthesis of bloody violence and touching melodrama. The scene in which Horibe (Ren Osugi) stares at the flowers in a shop window and dreams of incorporating them into his paintings is a masterpiece and has to be seen. It is, perhaps, also worth noting that all of the background paintings seen in the film were done by Kitano himself, blurring the line between public and personal, one of his most common themes. Hana-Bi won the Venice Film Festival Grand Prize in 1997. |
Kitano Takeshi No EigaFilms directed by Takeshi KitanoViolent Cop (1989) 'The Japanese Dirty Harry'; a genre tale of a Tokyo cop and his rather violent enforcement techniques. Boiling Point (1990) A baseball-playing youth offends a member of the Yakuza ... and they want revenge. A Scene at the Sea (1991) Accompanied by his girlfriend, a deaf garbage collector learns to surf after finding a broken board. Gangster Murakawa is suspicious when his superiors send him to intervene in a gang war. Getting Any? (1995) A slapstick comedy that satirises Japanese society. Kids Return (1996) After his near-fatal motorcycle accident, Kitano returns with a teenage coming-of-age story.
An immature man takes a young boy to meet his mother. Brother (2000) A Japanese gangster flies to Los Angeles and tries to take over the local underworld. Dolls (2002) Three tragic love stories, based on the themes of traditional Japanese Bunraku doll theatre. Zatoichi (2003) A story about the Japanese folk hero Zatoichi, a blind swordsman. |
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