Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2776 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-02-26
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The ideal starter movie for those who wish to familiarise themselves with the work of the paradoxical Japanese auteur, Hana-Bi (the word means "fireworks" in Japanese) is an echt example of "Beat"'s Takeshi Kitano's distinctive brand of existential crime thrillers. Like Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Sonatine or his LA-set Brother, Hana-Bi juxtaposes shocking bursts of violence with reflective moments of lyricism, setting up a slap-caress-slap rhythm that's as disquieting as it is addictive.

Kitano himself plays weary Tokyo cop Nishi, an impassive-faced detective in hock to yakuza mobsters, toughened by a career in violence (at one point he takes out an attacker's eye with a chopstick, an assault so swiftly edited one barely has time to register it). Nishi's Achilles-heel is his love for his wife Miyuki (Kayoko Kishimoto) who is dying of cancer, following their late daughter to the grave. When Nishi leaves a stakeout to attend to her in hospital, a colleague, Horibe (Ren Osugi) is paralysed in the ensuing shootout. Nishi, guilt-stricken, goes on the run with Miyuki, taking her to beauty spots to enjoy simple pleasures like kite-flying and picnics before she dies, although the yakuza are never far behind. Meanwhile, Horibe takes up painting, and discovers in the process a calming new vocation (the na&239;ve, disturbing and strangely beautiful images are by Kitano himself, painted after he had his own near-fatal experience in a motorcycle accident).

The cumulative effect is a profoundly moving and enigmatic movie, one that discreetly withholds many of the narrative crutches--backstory, motivation--you would expect from a conventional Hollywood movie with the same story. It's not surprising Kitano is so drawn to characters teeming with contradictions, given that his own career seems so bi-polar on paper: he started out a television presenting clown, and his move into glowering policiers represented an image volte-face as surprising to Japanese audiences as it would be if Dale Winton had started making Scorsese-style gangster movies. His comic sensibility shines through in spots in Hana-Bi, even more so in the broad comedy Kikujiro. Considered by many critics Kitano's best film, Hana-Bi^'s power is augmented by Hideo Yamamoto's lapidary cinematography, and Jo Hisaishi's lush, string-laden score. --Leslie Felperin

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
Japanese
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Documentary
Trailer
English

Synopsis
Takeshi Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi, writes, directs and stars in this beautiful lament of a film. Kitano stars as a retired cop who turns to crime to raise the money to take his dying wife on one last trip. Low on dialogue, HANA-BI is a meditation on guilt, loyalty, and death.

Customer Reviews

Haunting
This is considered by many to be cult Japanese director "beat" Takeshi Kitano's finest film. It certainly may be his most depressing. Hana-Bi is serene & introspective, occasionaly exploding into extremely violent moments, but the style is slow & can seem strange to anyone brought up on western films where dialogue is constant. As usual in "beats" films there are sometimes moments of sadistic violent humour. The story revolves around a cop called Nishi (Kitano). He is wracked by guilt when his partner is paralysed when he skips duty to visit his hospitalised wife. Events get out of hand as Nishi borrows money from the Yakuza and even commits a bank job (one of the coolest Ive seen)& goes on the run with his terminally ill wife who is dying of leukemia and given not long left to live. the last part of the movie he takes his wife on a road trip around scenic areas of Japan in her final days.. leading to a sad but inevitable conclusion, not as shocking as it first seems if you think about it. The character of Nishi is fascinating & seems somehow very Japanese. On the surface he is hard, little emotion, few words, capable of outbursts of psychopathic violence. But if you look closer this is a man who is also capable of the deepest compassion and self sacrifice. The only thing that betrays his undercurrent of feeling below the granite faced exterior is a facial tick, which seems to excentuate in moments of extreme emotion. This is a fantastic film. Not for those who are only interested in hollywood blockbuster films at 100mph though, or want happy endings for that matter! But very much recommended for those who enjoy thoughtfull, artistic films.

very highly rated- deserving of a 3.5
Hana bi is a very highly rated piece of cinema and its cinematography is very striking (if starting to look a little old being from 1997.)

The central idea and structure behind the film consists in moments of incredible serenity punctuated by acts of ludicrous violence from the protagonist- a brooding ex cop with a wife dying of a cancer in debt to the Yakuzas. The contrast of hana (flower) and bi (fire) literally 'fireworks.' The central performance by Kitano is amazing in a James Stewart meets Harvey Keitel way. But the constant contrast of serene japanese images and the elegiac story line of his dying wife with the acts of ludicrous violence that he carries out seems a little tired now. It was probably influential and striking at the time but I had higher expectations of such a purportedly seminal work. I Prefer 'Dolls' his beautiful meditation on loss and the seasons featuring three unrelated inter cut stories with a structure owing to Japanese puppet theater. There are some really funny moments in Hanabi not surprisingly as Takeshi Kitano is a comedian. He s also the most famous man in Japan on a different variety show every night. He is no doubt an incredibly unusually talented man: gifted as actor, director and comedian. He also has a film style all of his own. His unique sense of film grammar is in evidence in Hanabi. The way he allows the camera to linger over images languidly. The drawing together of seemingly very diverse images and moods shows a supreme cineamtic confidence . But he s capable of more than he does here- the tale descends into sentimentality and can seem a bit like self parody at times. Still a powerful and daring film.

A masterful work of art from Beat Takeshi
Winner of the golden lion at the Venice film festival in '97, Hana-Bi may well be the finest film i've seen. Written, directed and starring Kitano 'Beat' Takeshi and accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack it tells the story of a recently retired policeman who's wife is dying causing him to become ridden with guilt, who then decides to borrow money from the yakuza and rob a bank so he can do what he can for his wife in her last days, an ex-partner who is now wheelchair bound and the wife of another fellow officer who was killed. With the abstract use of some of Takeshi's own real life paintings that he did after a very unpleasant motorcycle accident, moments of sudden violence, unexpected comedy, and persued by the yakuza and police, he takes his wife on a journey that is as strange and depressing as it is wonderful. There is no western equivalent to Japans Beat Takeshi. His unique filming and acting style demands to be seen!!!