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Director: Takeshi Kitano. Release: 1997.
This is my sevent Takeshi Kintano film in my quest to watch all of his stuff in order of release. Takeshi Kitano
is slowly becoming one of my favorite movie directors of all time. Despite his problems, his style and recurring themes speak to me at a deep level.
If you like beatiful, meditative and highly symbolic films that contrast calm tones with stylized but also 'relaxed' violence, his films are for you.
In Hana-bi Kitano plays Nishi, an ex-detective of few words. The movies sees the character navigate thru surivor's guilt, depression and grief. He has lost colleagues, his daughter
and his wife has a terminal cancer. To add insult to injury, he has a big debt with some yakuza loan sharks.
The movie flows between scenes of extreme violence, to very funny comedic vignettes and then straight to deeply emotional character conflict that had me in tears by the end. It's really astounding how good Kitano is at communicating ideas with little dialogue.. a lot of credit should also be given to the cast. I can see why he tends to work with the same people over and over, he finds those actors that are as good as him at communicating just thru facial expression and body language.
Spoilers (hold click to read):
I thought that not only Kitano's paintings are beautiful, but also the story of a man finding the joy in creation thru depression was very resonant and moving.
That's a lot lot of what Hana-bi is. Learning to find joy in whatever we can find it. Even if in the end we give up, even if we lose, the path to our ending must be one of thruth to ourselves and the world, one of happiness. Hana-bi is one of the most heart wrenching portrayals of depression, suicide, grief and death while also being a movie deeply in love with life.