35. Hana-Bi (Fireworks)

Like many of Takeshi Kitano’s other movies, Fireworks is labeled a crime film, but it isn’t one, really. Though it contains sudden bursts of shocking violence, Fireworks is an understated, poetic movie about rediscovering the joy of being, for a brief time, alive. At the same time, Kitano criticizes the Japanese conformist pressure to dedicate your life to an employer and always do your duty.

Fireworks concerns decorated Detective Nishi (Kitano), whose partner Horibe is shot and paralyzed while Nishi is away visiting his terminally ill wife (Kayoko Kishimoto). Nishi’s subsequent vendetta results in another detective dead and a third wounded. Wracked by guilt and disgusted by the police force’s failure to nurture its own, Nishi quits in order to provide for his colleagues and ease his wife’s last days -- by any means necessary.

In the second half, the film takes an odd Kitano turn, as Nishi and his wife rediscover the simple delights of relaxing at the beach or fooling around with a deck of cards. Yet even in its quiet moments, aching loss and melancholy permeate the film. Life is both whimsical and brutal, and death is never far away.

Kitano never expresses his opinions -- or the plot – in a straightforward manner. Like his impassive protagonist, Kitano says little and feeds us the story piecemeal, sometimes via flashbacks spliced into the film with no commentary. His favorite reaction shot is an expressionless close-up of himself. He waits, he considers, and when the moment is right, he acts, with forceful, bloody determination. The camerawork is equally impassive, serving to emphasize the permanence of the surroundings and the impermanence of the people who pass through them. (Carlo Cavagna)