A video essay of the I adapted and re-worked from a paper I wrote back in university. I hope you enjoy it! Music used in the video is Biscuit by LukRemBo and the rest is from the Hana-bi Original Soundtrack by Hisaishi
This video was really informative and it helped me see the movie in a different way. The contrast between violence and art is striking. So much so that it would be almost jarring in any other film. Not Kitano. He knows how to balance themes like few I’ve seen.
I've watched the film several times and was always interested in the long still shots you mentioned. I often expected something to happen as a surprise, but the surprise never comes. I knew that Kitano put them in for a reason; when you draw the parallel between the shots and painting, you blew my mind. Thanks for adding a new level to the film. I now enjoy it even more. Another point to make is that Joe Hisaishi's music is just phenomenal. It's ominous but also somehow nostalgic. For music I only first heard in my late 20s I'm impressed. I suppose the long strains of the soundtrack mirror the long, motionless shots and the paintings. My partner sat with me for 5-10min while I was watching, and she immediately said two things: Takeshi looks very cool, and there was a 90s "vibe" to it. While she didn't know the film was from that time, and she could easily see the film is 'dated', it just goes to show how Kitano can produce a feel and energy that's immediately recognisable to even the most casual viewer.
I love your interpretation of masculinity and performing/executing violence. I completely agree with the differentiation of Nishi and Horibe and how their stories are mirrored and juxtaposed, as they each deal with trauma and change differently. Not sure if this has any relation with your video, but the one thing that amazed me the most was the idea of a character with the ability to interrupt the narrative, quickly dispatch his enemies and ultimately deny the conflict that is “promised” in a standar yakuza film, and instead decides to slow things down, go enjoy nature and beauty with his wife while he can. Of course it is not the first Kitano film where the film genre is deconstructed (and this goes back to French New Wave), but this time there is an incredibly satisfying deus ex machina in the form of Nishi.
The films name means Fireworks in english. A firework being destructive but beautiful. It really fits the theme of the film. Violence at a distance can be art or beauty in a way. If you get too close to said fireworks you will be burned. Interesting if thats why TK named it that.
It's a play on words in Japanese. Hanabi means fireworks, but the hyphenated word is meant to convey Hana (flower)-Bi (Fire/death). The theme is about 'giving water to dead flowers', resulting in an 'explosive' return to life. There are several dead flowers in this film: Nishi's Wife and Horibe to name the two big ones. Nishi's wife is actually dying, lifeless, bent over, gray, when we first meet her. But Nishi tends to her, and gives her a brand new life. She looks happy, colorful, vibrant. Like a flower. The same is true for Horibe, who feels dead in and out due to his disability and his family situation. His new colorful life is seen through his painting.
Hey man really cool vid. I'm starting as a video editor myself and was wondering how you made those big texts work with perspective during the section titles? And how did you make them twitch and move around like it was from an old movie?
Hello! Judging from your Miyazaki video it looks like you've figured out how to do the film grain and screen jitter! In regards to the 3D text I used after effects, using the 3D text tutorial by Greyscalegorilla
I feel this film and many Tekeshi films depict the Yakuza (organised crime) and Dirty Harry like cops as this is the only semblance of pure unadulterated masculine men who are free from the whims of petty and trivial society. They harken back to traditional societies before western decadence. After the code of the samurai and it’s aristocratic sensibility was replaced with western materialism and breed winner mentality. You see this same thing in a great Japanese author like Yukio Mishima. We consider the man of the house or father as the staple of masculinity, especially in more conservative countries. Irony is it’s a emasculating position at best. A father is really nothing but a slave on a wheel. It’s why Tekeshi and Mishima are so appealing to men. Because it’s a kind of return to something more traditional and full of vitalism. It’s beautiful, violent, poetic, and liberating. We need a return to this type of cinema and literature. It would be considered “toxic” now aha. It mean I’m all the more for this toxicity.
It's certainly an interesting take away from my video since I'm pretty critical of beat takeshi's character's masculinity in it and really wouldn't agree on it being liberating.
I’m sorry I have watched and rewatched your video and it just isn’t at all what I feel. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard Takeshi talking about Hana Bi this way. Everything you say is very theoretical and subjective.
That's no problem at all! Thank you for engaging with it and if you have any questions about some of the things I've said all my sources are listed in the video
Wow, really edgy babbling about masculinity while presenting the word in pink in your thumbnail; Now you've really beaten masculinity for good! There are probably 100 other motifs and poinits about this movie alone that are at least as important or more important than (your very subjective and emotional depiction of) masculinity, yet, as a 10th rate armchair film buff on youtube it's not possible (and not supposed to be possible) seeing a movie through another lense than the toxic postmodern race/class/gender lense - so creative! Totally doesn't sound like the video is written by an AI.
@@schwezy I've only heard answers like that from grade schoolers so far. But even they know what punctuation is. Thx for confirming another observation about this youtuber and his viewers.
