Fireworks (1997)

Happy post-Oscars Mubi Monday! This week we’re going to look at an early offering from Takeshi Kitano, the director of the Outrage trilogy, with Fireworks (1997).

Title: Fireworks (Hana-bi)

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Released: September 3, 1997 (Venice Film Festival)

Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes

Available to stream on: Mubi and Kanopy

To say that life for policeman Yoshitaka Nishi (Takeshi Kitano) has been rough of late would be quite the understatement. Very early on we learn that Nishi’s young daughter has recently died. Adding insult to injury, his beloved wife is now dying of leukemia.

As if that wasn’t enough, while on a stakeout with his partner, Horibe (Ren Osugi), things go sideways and Horibe winds up paralyzed. After the botched stakeout, Nishi retires and spends his time caring for his wife. Caring for her isn’t easy without a source of income, so to make ends meet Nishi decides to borrow money from the yakuza.

There’s no issue with borrowing the money, it’s what happens to you when you can’t and/or don’t pay it back. Struggling to pay back the yakuza, Nishi knows that drastic times call for drastic measures. He buys a stolen taxi and gives it a paint job so that it resembles a police car. Naturally the next thing to do is rob a bank while dressed as a policeman, right?

Well, Nishi is successful but now has made his situation worse. Not only is he still on the hook to the yakuza, but the police are after him now as well.

Can Nishi outsmart the authorities and the yakuza all while caring for his wife?

If you went into Fireworks (1997) expecting some sort of procedural cop drama, hopefully you weren’t disappointed because that is not at all what we got. In fact, we were treated to something else entirely.

Kitano’s performance as Nishi was absolutely outstanding. A troubled man who gets by just fine when the outside world leaves him alone. However, something as simple as one wrong word and Nishi snaps and becomes a violent madman. The most horrifying part of it all, no matter his mood, Nishi shows zero emotion. That being said, despite there being no change in facial expressions, Kitano still is able to make us feel what Nishi is unable to express, unless through violence. Not only does Nishi show little emotion, but he also says very little. In fact, there is hardly any dialogue in the entire film.

The cinematography (by Hideo Yamamoto), editing (by Takeshi Kitano and Yoshinori Ota), and score (by Joe Hisaishi) do all of the talking in Fireworks (1997). While the editing and cinematography set the scene, it’s Hisaishi’s score that does a lot of the heavy lifting. Rather than telling us what or how to feel, his score elevates the scenery and amplifies the emotions already present.

One thing that might turn people off is the absence of a traditional narrative story. We don’t have scenes spoon-fed to us and there is no extra fluff. Everything is stripped down, revealed in non-linear layers, and done so in a way that I found to be incredibly engaging.

Fireworks (1997) hit all the right notes with me and is a strong recommend.

Now it’s your turn to tell me what you thought of Fireworks (1997).

If you’ve seen it, leave a comment below or reach out on social media with your thoughts!

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