Fireworks (Hana-Bi)

Takeshi Kitano’s Fireworks (Hana-Bi) the winner of the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice International Film Festival, is the most exciting film of the legendary director's career.

A multimedia superstar considered to be the most famous film and television figure in Japan, Kitano is known throughout Asia as “Beat” Takeshi, an irreverent comedian, novelist, poet, essayist, television personality, actor and film director.

As he has for most of his films, Kitano not only directed and starred in Fireworks, he also wrote the screenplay and edited the film. Additionaly, Kitano painted the many beautiful, often magical paintings that mirror and sometimes foreshadow the film’s powerful narrative.

In Fireworks, Kitano transcends the action genre, using the structure of a crime thriller to explore serious questions about life and death. He plays a good cop, Yoshitaka Nishi, who has a violent streak he doesn’t always choose to control. Thugs who try to cross him end up beaten, bloody or worse. His violence is explosive, efficient and coolly stylish. Needing money to pay off debts of honor, Nishi stages a perfect bank robbery. He then takes his terminally ill wife on a last trip to the mountains pursued by the angry yakuza looking for the ”interest.” The gangsters finally catch up to Nishi and his wife, with the cops not far behind. The film’s denouement is harsh, beautiful and heartbreaking.

Bonus Features

US & Japanese trailers.

Stills Gallery of Kitano's paintings

"Making" of documentary

Reviews

"Extraordinary. Wildly beautiful. One of the decade's great films." - John Powers, Vogue