|
|
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781567302233
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1567302238
Label: New Yorker Video
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: New Yorker Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 27, 2000
Running Time: 103 minutes
Sales Rank: 69509
Studio: New Yorker Video
Theatrical Release Date: March 20, 1998
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
A superstar and cultural icon in his native Japan, Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano has conquered more than one medium, but he is best known in the West for his remarkable films. Among those, Fireworks is the clear favorite, a taut and enigmatic noir that fluctuates between perfect stillness and savage eruptions of violence.
Kitano plays a cop named Nishi, a determinedly impassive man whose face occasionally ripples with an involuntary tic, hinting at the explosive but contained forces within. Nishi's wife (Kayato Kishimoto) is dying of leukemia, a disease that already killed their child, and he cares for her with a shattering tenderness. While on a stakeout, Nishi takes a break to check in on her, and while he's gone his partner is crippled and another officer is killed. With death hovering at home and a score to settle outside, Kitano's hero sets off on an isolated course to seek justice.
Few filmmakers have understood as well as Kitano has here the irresistible draw of a thriller told with a moody calmness, with an eye toward graceful construction and rigorous composition. The careful, unhurried dispensing of story information also helps keep the focus on Nishi's warrior soul, on his mysterious capacity for the extremes of gentleness and brutality. The story here is the way one man can be the sum of such bold contradictions, and a great story it is. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - One of Kitano's best.
Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano, 1997)
Get a group of Kitano otaku in one place and debate will rage for hours on the subject of which of his films is the best. Eventually, everyone will settle down into three camps-- Kikujiro (which is where you'll find me), Sonatine, and Hana-Bi. All three factions can make strong, valid arguments for their movies, and really it all comes down to personal taste in the end. This is not to say that a person from faction A won't like faction B's favorite movie; ... Read More
Rating: - Fire flowers!
Takeshi Kitano is one of the most prominent Japanese filmmakers in the last two decades. His personal optical deals with the thriller as reference point to explore those powerful insights inscribed inside the human soul.
So, "Fireworks" deals with two sides of a same coin; love and violence being this last concept approached from a very curious perspective: the violence acting as device of a major justice.
Nishi (Our star cop) has a dying wife in a hospital (victim of cancer) ... Read More
Rating:  - Great Film, Disgusting Transfer
Why am i writing this review? I guess the only reasons are to state what a great masterpiece not only of Kitano's work, but of cinema this movie is, and to state my disgust at the insulting DVD quality of this. Its not DVD quality, and it certainly does not live up to the beautiful 35mm picture. The cheap third rate transfer renders everyhting under-exposed, de-saturated and "viedeo-y". When the camer pans, for instance, it looks like you're watching a DV recording of Hana-bi on a tv set. you see the digital ... Read More
Rating: - Hana-Bi
An eccentric, wildly unpredictable gem from writer-director-star Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, this hard-boiled cop story veers from quiet, tender sentimentalism to explosive, in-your-face violence. Hiding behind mirrored shades for much of the film, Kitano plays Nishi--a devoted husband and friend, and a super-deadly foe--with ice-cool, nearly wordless reserve. Aside from an involuntary facial tic, Nishi's mask-like face rarely changes, even when he's blasting away at bad guys. "Fireworks" is a poetic crime-thriller ... Read More
Rating: - Kitano's best....
I have seen many Takeshi Kitano films, but this one haunts me especially. It's very poetic, sad, beautiful, and complex. What can you say about a Yakuza film that begins with serene, tender paintings (done by Kitano himself). Kitano gives probably one of his better performances here, playing yet another version of a disillusioned cop, but with more depth this time. This is not to say that his other films were shallow (quite the contrary), but here the emotional resonance makes this film even more moving and ... Read More
|
|
