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#494 - Fireworks
Takeshi Kitano, 1997
A veteran police detective with a terminally ill wife and a sizeable debt to the Yakuza must pull off a bank robbery in order to set things right.
I think I'm about due to get back into Kitano's movies. Sonatine is definitely worthy of my Top 100 these days, but as of writing nothing else has quite made the same leap. If any film was likely to do it, it would probably be Fireworks, which is the consensus pick for Kitano's best directorial effort and not without reason. Kitano's idiosyncratic filmmaking style means that I'm pretty split on how much I like each individual film, but I've never outright hated any of them (hence why I think I'm due for some re-watches). Fireworks definitely features a lot of the same Kitano trademarks - extra beats between scene transitions, long stretches of no action punctuated by the odd spot of brutal violence, characters whose performances alternate between muted understatement and vitriolic outbursts, etc. - but wraps them around a plot that is more consistently compelling than that of Sonatine. Kitano once again plays the lead, this time as a police detective who already starts the film with a variety of money troubles thanks to both the medical bills of his dying wife and the Yakuza breathing down his neck due to some gambling debts. After his long-time partner is shot and disabled by a criminal that he was supposed to be staking out, Kitano decides to settle things once and for all by planning a bank robbery.
The plot is fairly simple, but it's filled out reasonably well. Knowing about Kitano's near-fatal motorcycle accident a few years before this film was made certainly seems to inform the sub-plot involving his character's partner adjusting to life after his injury (especially when he takes up painting, showcasing Kitano's actual paintings from the time period in the process). The film does spend a lot of time focusing on the paintings to the point where it does feel a little like padding, but they are adequately complemented by Joe Hisaishi's appropriately elegaic score. Such scenes set the standard for the film as a whole and extend to what could be considered the plot itself, as Kitano takes a premise full of worn-out tropes (corrupt cop with a heart of gold pulls "one last job" to redeem himself) and filters it through his own peculiar sensibilities. That much is true of the bank robbery scene itself, which is humourous due to its extremely po-faced subversion of the typical Western heist sequence without descending into predictable slapstick. In the same way that Sonatine's second act consisted of a drawn-out sequence of mundane events as the characters waited for the seemingly inevitable conclusion of their journey, Fireworks delivers an extended third act that also subverts the typically suspense-filled finale as Kitano slowly but surely makes his getaway. This may try one's patience, but even on a second viewing the tension surrounding the final scene is pretty tough to bear.
While I don't think it's likely to up-end Sonatine as my favourite Kitano film any time soon, Fireworks is easily the purest distillation of everything that defines Kitano as a filmmaker while also managing to be a strong film in its own right. I naturally recommend it to everyone who doesn't mind a film that's willing to stretch out and deliver something different rather than play its well-worn premise for easy excitement. Everything about it is off-beat in just the right way - the humourous sociopathy of its characters, the balance of both predictable and unpredictable types of violence, the frequently static camerawork, the weirdly sweet core that's buried under layers and layers of nihilistic nastiness, and so forth. The only possible exception might be Hisaishi's score, which is frequently wistful and beautiful in its own right and therefore is at odds with the film as a whole, but when it is used it is used brilliantly (especially during that final scene). I'm starting to think this might even be a contender for the next Top 100, and if that's not a glowing recommendation then I'm not sure what would be.
Takeshi Kitano, 1997
A veteran police detective with a terminally ill wife and a sizeable debt to the Yakuza must pull off a bank robbery in order to set things right.
I think I'm about due to get back into Kitano's movies. Sonatine is definitely worthy of my Top 100 these days, but as of writing nothing else has quite made the same leap. If any film was likely to do it, it would probably be Fireworks, which is the consensus pick for Kitano's best directorial effort and not without reason. Kitano's idiosyncratic filmmaking style means that I'm pretty split on how much I like each individual film, but I've never outright hated any of them (hence why I think I'm due for some re-watches). Fireworks definitely features a lot of the same Kitano trademarks - extra beats between scene transitions, long stretches of no action punctuated by the odd spot of brutal violence, characters whose performances alternate between muted understatement and vitriolic outbursts, etc. - but wraps them around a plot that is more consistently compelling than that of Sonatine. Kitano once again plays the lead, this time as a police detective who already starts the film with a variety of money troubles thanks to both the medical bills of his dying wife and the Yakuza breathing down his neck due to some gambling debts. After his long-time partner is shot and disabled by a criminal that he was supposed to be staking out, Kitano decides to settle things once and for all by planning a bank robbery.
The plot is fairly simple, but it's filled out reasonably well. Knowing about Kitano's near-fatal motorcycle accident a few years before this film was made certainly seems to inform the sub-plot involving his character's partner adjusting to life after his injury (especially when he takes up painting, showcasing Kitano's actual paintings from the time period in the process). The film does spend a lot of time focusing on the paintings to the point where it does feel a little like padding, but they are adequately complemented by Joe Hisaishi's appropriately elegaic score. Such scenes set the standard for the film as a whole and extend to what could be considered the plot itself, as Kitano takes a premise full of worn-out tropes (corrupt cop with a heart of gold pulls "one last job" to redeem himself) and filters it through his own peculiar sensibilities. That much is true of the bank robbery scene itself, which is humourous due to its extremely po-faced subversion of the typical Western heist sequence without descending into predictable slapstick. In the same way that Sonatine's second act consisted of a drawn-out sequence of mundane events as the characters waited for the seemingly inevitable conclusion of their journey, Fireworks delivers an extended third act that also subverts the typically suspense-filled finale as Kitano slowly but surely makes his getaway. This may try one's patience, but even on a second viewing the tension surrounding the final scene is pretty tough to bear.
While I don't think it's likely to up-end Sonatine as my favourite Kitano film any time soon, Fireworks is easily the purest distillation of everything that defines Kitano as a filmmaker while also managing to be a strong film in its own right. I naturally recommend it to everyone who doesn't mind a film that's willing to stretch out and deliver something different rather than play its well-worn premise for easy excitement. Everything about it is off-beat in just the right way - the humourous sociopathy of its characters, the balance of both predictable and unpredictable types of violence, the frequently static camerawork, the weirdly sweet core that's buried under layers and layers of nihilistic nastiness, and so forth. The only possible exception might be Hisaishi's score, which is frequently wistful and beautiful in its own right and therefore is at odds with the film as a whole, but when it is used it is used brilliantly (especially during that final scene). I'm starting to think this might even be a contender for the next Top 100, and if that's not a glowing recommendation then I'm not sure what would be.