Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The acting in this movie is really good.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Takeshi Kitano dives once more into the yakuza underworld and emerges with a fierce performance, as he leads one of the decade's best hidden gems.Kitano plays Nishi, a cop whose life has been slowly crumbling apart and is about to take an even darker turn. He's lost his daughter and his wife is fighting an uphill battle with leukemia. She spends her days at the hospital and, to pay for her treatment, Nishi now finds himself in debt with the yakuza. To add insult to injury, he's also feeling guilty, as his partner, Horibe, has been confined to a wheelchair after being injured while Nishi was visiting his wife. It's here that the film parts into two narratives: that of Horibe, who must grapple with his new condition, and of Nishi, who has to repay the yakuza and deal with his wife's inevitable demise.Make no mistake, this isn't an Asian action movie. The film has a very deliberate pace. Kitano often shoots long and almost silent takes, showing us a cold and deadpan Nishi, always hidden behind his shades, even when he's with his wife. In fact, the two barely talk throughout the film, but they're truthful, as if they've been together long enough to tell each other all they had to tell. Sometimes they giggle, or share a more heartwarming moment, but these moments are fleeting. It's in between these long takes that we get another look at Nishi. With flawless editing, Kitano makes violence spark in "Fireworks", but that's all it does. Rarely does he linger in the violence or the gore, the act itself is nothing more than that, an action.Both Horibe and Nishi are men to whom life has been treacherous, and yet it's curious to note the distinct way in which these two men react. Horibe is the more vocal of the two, but still seems better at handling his misfortune than the explosive and criminal Nishi. Truth be told, the only pleasant moments in Nishi's life seem to be the ones he spends with his wife, walking by the shore or sitting by the beach, he's calm. However, if he's confronted by his own immoral actions, mayhem ensues. This is mostly how "Fireworks" plays, like a ticking time-bomb, serene but with the threat of violence always at the surface."The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long" - we know that eventually Nishi will get his comeuppance, but whether he truly deserves it is what's most unsettling about "Fireworks".

Takeshi Kitano not only writes, acts in, directs and edits this meaningful fable, he also paints the artworks that are a strong element of the film. Kitano is supposedly known for his violence, but this movie has more to do about the repercussion of violence--and about life and death in general--than showing actual violent scenes. The violence is there, bursts of explosive violence, but it is short and strategically edited.Nishi, the protagonist, sees his partners die or get injured in the line of duty. One of them, Horibe, becomes wheel-chair-bound. His wife leaves him and he contemplates life and death staring at the horizon beyond the sea. He starts to paint to express himself and save himself from boredom and sorrow. Nishi, sick of his work leaves the police force to spend some time with his dying wife. The doctor just released her from the hospital and she does not have much time left...Kitano chooses to focus on the underlying emotions rather than dialogue as most of the scenes with his wife are silent. At first, this is unnerving, but slowly, as the movie progress, we understand that there is nothing left to stay.The score of the movie is its strongest point. Accomplished composer, Joe Hisaishi (who worked with Kitano on other projects as well as with Miyazaki's animated films) outdoes himself with poignant classical music that, unlike Nishi, speaks volume. He would win the Award of the Japanese Academy for this.Some good cinematography can also be observed at times. Kitano's paintings are interesting and vibrant. They add yet another level of complexity to this intriguing piece of film. All in all, a very well made film.

I only once happened to get my fingers on Kitanos movie "Brother", which got me into checking out his other movies. So i got Hana Bi since it had a lot of good reviews. I can actually understand people, that mostly watch action flicks, getting bored by this film, but for those more into poetic films, this is just the thing for you. While short on dialog, the movie is stronger on the body language of all the characters... sometimes there isn't any dialog for more than 6 minutes or so, where you just have to watch in order to understand what he is trying to tell us... For me it the movie was a bit depressing and sometimes hard to follow, but i still enjoyed it a lot. But as i said, this movie is not for everyone.... The movie is about a cop in Japan who leaves the police to spend more time with his wife who is dying of cancer, and if that was not enough to bare with, he also lost a kid and his partner gets shot and paralyzed on the job. Now he has to deal with all these tragedies at the same time... So if you want a comparison, if you liked movies like "21 grams" for example, you will love this movie!

So, it has come to this. In the top-rated comment on this flick, somebody says "Nishi is an honorable man". Really? This is a guy who mainly kills and maims people in the movie. He takes a short break to rob a bank. Honorable? How would you like your kids to go to school with the kids of someone who calls that honorable? Wait, there's more! The person also says "we can tell he's constantly thinking." How can we do that? Well, do you know that joke "How can you tell when a CEO/politician/lawyer is lying?" ... "His/her lips move." Well, Nishi's lips never move, so I guess that means he is thinking.Of course, this is existentialism to warm the hearts of the cult of victimization. Existentalism supposedly stresses that an individual take responsibility for the consequences of one's acts. Not Nishi. Borrow money from the yakuza. What, they want it back? Kill them. The cops find out. Kill yourself and your wife.Really honorable.