Fogos de Artifício

It was frustrating at first- I couldn't work out what the plot was, wasn't really caring for the characters, and didn't know whether it was in non-chronological order or not. At a point, I unconsciously stopped worrying about those things, and started to enjoy it more. It felt less about having a conventional narrative and more about simply evoking some powerful- yet sorta hard to describe- emotions. The visuals are largely great and go a long way in making the film oddly beautiful and hypnotic, and the musical score is outstanding. I could see myself really liking this on a rewatch at some point, when I know what I'm in for, and therefore aware of the best mood to experience such a film in.

Hana-bi (1997) is Japanese film maker Takeshi Kitano's masterpiece along his Sonatine (1993). Hana-bi reminds me pretty much of his more recent film, Brother (2000), which still has much more humor and positivism in it. Those who have experienced Sonatine may ask can a film be even more beautiful and brilliant, but Hana-bi is at least as masterful, if also different. The film stars again the director himself as Nishi, a police man who learns his wife suffers from some extremely lethal disease which has taken her speech, too. She is going to die soon, and all Nishi has in his mind is to make his wife's last weeks as enjoyable and nice as possible. He is forced to deal with Yakuza in order to get some money for her medical care and other plans he has for her last days, and that leads of course to troubles with the gangsters as Nishi isn't able to pay back his loans. Nishi's partner is another tragic character, who is shot and paralyzed for the rest of his life during one shoot out. Also one of Nishi's partners is shot dead in a scene, which belongs to the film's most powerful scenes and it is shown as a flashback, in the usual silent and symbolic style of the director. What follows is all the great elements we've learned to wait from this artist from one of the greatest cinema lands in the world, Japan.

Hana-bi is almost unbearably sad and emotional, and its most tragic character is Horibe, the partner who is paralyzed and totally abandoned by his wife and children after he loses his ability to move and be like his used to. The scenes in which Horibe tells to Nishi about his loneliness and that everyone has left him are extremely powerful and really make think about the values of one's own life for the second time. Horibe finds some kind of way to express his sadness through art and painting, and he gets a great gift from Nishi, one of his last friends who understands him and would never leave him like the others did.

The shoot out flashback is also one memorable segment in this film, and it is in its slow motion one of the most beautiful, yet shocking depictions of violence ever possible. Hana-bi has some very strong scenes of violence, and it all erupts again as rapidly as always in Takeshi's films. Weak souls resort to violence very often, and the result is always just more violence, death, depravity and pain, both physical and emotional. I will stress again that those who think Takeshi's cinema is gratuitously violent (or Japanese cinema in general, i.e. the work of Takashi Miike and Ishii) miss the whole point as his films absolutely never glorify violence or present it as a noteworthy tool; his films analyze violence and show many aspects of it, without hiding or embellishing anything. His films are as important in this level as they are in cinematic element level as some of his usual trademarks are absolutely unique and stunning, and Hana-bi is definitely not an exception.

The music is again by Joe Hisaishi, who composed Takeshi's films Sonatine and Brother plus some others. The soundtrack in Hana-bi is again one key element of the film, and it is perhaps closer to Brother's than Sonatine's, but still all these three films have unique and masterful soundtrack which is full of emotions. The greatest element of all, however, in Hana-bi are the paintings by the director himself, who painted them after his nearly fatal motorcycle accident in 1994. They are stunningly beautiful and staggering as they combine different types of nature's beauty in very unique way. The animals combined with flowers are so wonderfully effective and their power is taken even further by the music. This symbolism creates so powerful experience that it almost requires the viewer to cry for the characters, but also for the cinematic magic this director has created.

The usual wry humor of Takeshi is almost completely missing in Hana-bi, but there are some little bits, which are still in right places and work as fine as they always do. Still, this is the most inconsolable film of Takeshi, and be sure to watch the whole film the end credits included, since there's one extremely purifying image coming, in the tradition of the finale in Brother. Despite Hana-bi being so sad and harrowing, the very end is again very relieving and belongs among the greatest endings of all time. Another film with similar ultra-powerful image at the end is Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves, another masterpiece from the 90's.

I just cannot imagine loving some other film maker's work more than Takeshi's, and he is among the greatest cinematic artist I know, and it is not a surprise he's from Japan, since Asian film makers are usually the most personal and stunning and don't have any restrictions for their work like in Hollywood film makers usually have as they have to keep the ratings and commercial things in mind. Fortunately Takeshi has been able to do his films completely free, and I really hope he can continue it for many years to come. Hana-bi is his brightest masterpiece. 10/10 immortal cinema.

A slow burning movie, full of brooding atmosphere, lots of fierce stares and minimal dialogue. Lots of violence mainly aimed at yakusa so that's OK I guess.

Very good photography, solid music and a soul spiralling out of it's orbit.

There are two challenges in building a life with the help of art.

The first challenge is the matter of finding good art, sorting it out from background noise. Good art is a communication from a transcendent place through a person or group with the skills to deliver it coherently. This is rare enough. All good craftsmen think they are artists and sell themselves that way.

This film is a work of art. Yes, quirky. Yes, some elements are clumsy. He has some paintings he wants us to see, so he shoehorns in a suicidal painter. He needs a suicidal painter, so he...

But we tolerate these misfits because the nature of the story follows the Japanese gangster movie convention of being a bunch of borrowed quotes from elsewhere. Borrowing these from Takeshi's artistic world is as fair as from the pop vocabulary. All these projects reference the outside.

So this is good art. It resonates. I recommend you look at it.

But the second challenge with art is deciding how to relate to it, to use it to build your mind, to work and extend your imagination. You are what you eat artistically. I cannot eat this.

No, it is not the violence. Violence in film is merely cinematic tension, to be used like smoke. It is the world that matters. Art is a gateway to a world and you have to be disposed to the target: can you use it? Will it help?

What's wrong here is that this the flip side of noir. Noir defines a world of random pain, animated by some conspiracy between the viewer and a disembodied fate. But it comes from an intent of humorous exploration, capricious hazard but hazard for mischief, not deliberate pain. Its the deliberate pain we get here, the incessant grinding of the human spirit, and incidentally some valiant tolerance, but only incidentally.

If I clove this into my mind, I would be another half step closer to suicide myself. So watch it... from a distance.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Kitano's Hana-bi is something quite special, a film where images of violence and beauty are juxtaposed. The violence is deadly, but certainly not gratuitous or pointless. The beauty is the love story, the happiness between a cop and his wife.

There are 3 main stories in the picture, each one given the time it deserves. The film is beautiful to watch, the camera work is slick and amazing.

The direction is faultless and no frame is wasted. The film's images speak out, they are very powerful. The long silences add so much to the film, the director really knew what he was doing.

The screenplay is almost in the shadow of the awe-inspiring images, but does give the picture a deserving foundation!

The performances are 101% perfect, very authentic!

The film's musical score is beautiful, it feels very isolated from the images which only adds to the raw ambience, it's perfect!

This is a Japanese masterpiece, see it in wide-screen!