Hana-Bi

Takeshi Kitano is truly Japan's best kept secret. I found out about him from Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder DVD releases, a short lived home video company he started up with Miramax in which he unleashed Sonatine to the U.S. Kitano was known as a comedian and t.v personality to Japan in his early days (Shows like Takeshi's Castle or as you might know it, most extreme elimination Challenge)Until he began dipping his toes into film in which it was hard for Japanese audiences to take him seriously. That is until this film was released, his 7th. After suffering a motorcycle accident around 1994 which I've read was an "unconscious suicide attempt" he recovered, and continued film making. Dispite the large majority still not thinking of him as a film maker 6 movies into his career and countless acting rolls. He picked up painting as a hobby because of being wheelchair ridden and you see his life experiences played out in this film even his paintings are used. I've never seen someone be so cool so effertlessly as him and whenever someone mentions minimalist films he is first to mind. His filmography ranges from Yakuza style to samurai to heartfelt to his comedy roots. Living in America it is somewhat difficult to track down some of his films many of them being on out of print older DVDs, so this release from film movement was a welcomed edition to the collection (previously only available on New Yorker Video DVD circa 2000.) Film movement has two of his other films on Blu Ray his first and second, However true Kitano fans will come to notice His surrealist trilogy is nowhere to be found for region A players. In which he goes all out even poking fun at himself, hopefully in time his movies will be getting the treatment they deserve with releases like this in the future. So if you are a fan of cinema, appriciate directors, or tired of all the mainstream reboots/remakes/sequels filling our theaters throw up some of his trailers on YouTube and you'll be Itching to see what has been hiding in the shadows this whole time.

Hana-bi is about the legacy of being a cop. Takeshi Kitano is a former policeman who can’t seem to escape the violence of his past but wants to for his wife. Ren Osugi is his former partner who is trying to start anew after being paralyzed. Like many of Kitano’s movies the pace is very slow. For instance, Osugi starts visualizing paintings leading to endless shots of his concepts. There are also brief bits of violence in Takeshi style. I have to say I liked the concept more than the actual movie. It just moved at a snail’s pace.

I don't really care for most of Kitano's movies but this one is special. Has interesting out of time sequences, personal family tragedy plot intertwined with criminal elements and police actions. A couple of violent parts but overall a beautiful quirky movie. Great music by Joe Hishashi (I bought the soundtrack album).

This has got to be one of the most simultaneously beautiful and depressing films of recent memory. We've all heard a great deal about the economic doldrums that Japan has been facing for the last decade or so, but economic statistics mean little to us when the country and its people lie a half world away. It takes a film like this one, and a director like Takesi, to put a human face on these numbers, to paint a terrible portrait of despair as it grips an entire people and a nation. We view this dark world through the eyes of a Tokyo policeman who, pushed over the edge by his seemingly impossible economic circumstances and the senseless brutality of Yakuza gangsterism, concludes that in the end, the only thing that matters to him is to provide a few last days of joy and warmth for his dying, leucemic wife. Her fragile beauty and innocent purity stands in stark and terrible contrast the the ugliness that surrounds her, and there is an almost nihilistic, but nonetheless incontrovertible logic to his decision. It is a dark, violent, seemingly hopeless, but ultimately beautiful film.

One of director's two great films. See it.

First Japanese thrill I ever watched

Of the several I've seen. Brutal violence, but with a moral compass and a heart.

Simply a Masterpiece!

I remember watching Hana-Bi on TV about 20 years ago and thinking it was fantastic. I've been catching up on Takeshi Kitano's work on DVD/Blu ray recently and I'm delighted to report that I still love this movie.It's kinda presented as a crime/heist movie, but that's not really the whole of it. It's more a story about a man coming to terms with his dying wife's illness as his life collapses around him, juxtaposed with another severely depressed man saving his soul through creating works of art. The cops and gangsters stuff is window dressing for this. I found it quite moving back then and I still do now. It's hard not to think that this was Kitano working through his own issues through the medium of film, considering what was going on in the director's own life at the time and his own near-death experience. The cinematography is superb here too. I think Kitano wanted to show us the beauty of the Japanese landscape (and show off his own paintings!) too - and we get this here in spades.If you want a straight up rip-roaring Yakuza movie, go watch Kitano's "Outrage". If you want a straight up maverick cop movie, watch his "Violent Cop". This one is more slow and thoughtful. Absolutely worth investing your time in this, though I guess some people might find it a little "slow". Leaves you with a lot to think about.Wonderfully presented Blu-ray too. Nice clear picture/sound and good subtitles. There are also plenty of extras.One criticism I do have (not worth knocking a star off) is that I think that audio commentary could have been better. I know most people only listen to these once or twice, but I sometimes appreciate the insight/context/stories about the production/etc. Here, it starts off okay, but I'm the last half hour or so, the fellow seems to run out of things to say and just starts describing what we just watched happen on screen and there is a lot of silence. It doesn't detract from the movie, but I thought it worth mentioning.If you want to see Takeshi Kitano strutting around with a stony face, kicking ass, spilling blood and killing a bunch of bad guys, there is some of that here too, but I think if you come into this, expecting this to be a tough-guy movie, you'll be disappointed. It's way more than that. Maybe it's supposed to be a deconstruction of that sort of movie.Definitely check this one out.

Along with Violent Cop, I think this is one of my very favourite Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano films. His films are like nothing I have seen before. You never really know what to expect with his films. Is it going to be non stop violence? Usually not. Is it going to be funny? Pretty much yes. Will it be beautifully shot? You bet. Will it be a moving experience? Oh yes. The mixture of emotions you will experience in his films is quite simply breath taking. Please watch this film and his other works and I guarantee they will stay with you forever. Takeshi Kitano, in my eyes is an absolute genius.

Excellent example of kitano's work. Super cool ex-cop, Nishi with a sick wife and complicated life. Hard to explain the plot without either giving too much away, or making it sound boring. Trust me, it isn't. Somehow this guy is mesmerising as the almost monosyllabic (initially at least) main lead. All the themes are there, love, loyalty, friendship and playfulness, along with the trademark stillness and unpredictable episodes of violence, which never seem over done, somehow. If you haven't seen his work yet, I'd recommend starting with this one, or sonatine. Unique guy.

Very entertaining film that was imbued with it's own style thanks I suspect to actor/director Takeshi Kitano. It has a certain "trashiness" to it a bit like some Brian De Palma films that can superficially mask the real quality that lies behind it. If you watch it through to the end though you will be rewarded with an original cinematic experience.

Great