First known in Japan as a comedian and television personality, Takeshi Kitano, is now an internationally respected filmmaker with a knack for turning gritty crime dramas on their ear. He began in 1989 with Violent Cop and the bodies kept falling through Boiling Point and Sonatine. Now, "Beat" Takeshi writes, directs and stars in his latest reinvention of the gangster-film genre, Fireworks (1997, 103 minutes).
The movie: Detective Nishi (Kitano) is a silent man, a broken cop. While Nishi is away, by the side of his terminally ill wife, his partner is ruthlessly gunned down during a stakeout. The wounds leave his partner confined to a wheelchair and without the continued will to live. Nishi blames himself for not being there, and stoically determines to kill the punk responsible. And in the flick’s most brutal scene, he does — and then some — emptying his service revolver into the kid’s head. But there is no relief as ANOTHER officer is killed in this encounter, which Nishi also accepts blame. He quits the force to attend to his wife, his fallen comrade, and somehow manages to become indebted to gangster loansharks. It’s how he chooses to deal with all these life crises that makes the story powerful — both grim and hopeful — explosive and tranquil.
Notables: No breasts. Nine corpses. Chopsticks to the eye socket. Rock skipping. Bank robbery. Gratuitous card trick scene. Vase to the brainpan. Multiple beatings.
Quotables: Nothing too amusing in the subtitles.
Time codes: Two guys in crazy wooden shoes play catch (5:17). Breath-taking gun fight in a shopping mall (33:00). Nishi doesn’t like high-interest loans (1:23:30).
Final thought: The art-house crowd’s answer to a Chuck Bronson vengeance picture. Brutal AND sensitive — maybe too introspective for some.