{"id":30,"date":"2010-05-23T21:09:25","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T12:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/?p=30"},"modified":"2011-04-27T15:28:16","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T06:28:16","slug":"i-heart-t-points-hana-bi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/2010\/05\/i-heart-t-points-hana-bi\/","title":{"rendered":"I Heart T-Points:<\/B> HANA-BI<\/I>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

HANA-BI <\/em>is the best Japanese movie ever made.\u00c2\u00a0 Need proof?\u00c2\u00a0 In 1997, it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, one of the highest honors in the film industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Need more?\u00c2\u00a0 In 2005, it changed my life (which is also a pretty big deal).<\/p>\n

Have you ever noticed that students quote the same joke (Toose!<\/em>) over and over for months but eventually the joke (Ichi, ni, SAN!<\/em>) <\/em>mysteriously disappears? <\/em>This occurs because Japanese comedians frequently fade into obscurity as quickly as they rose to popularity.\u00c2\u00a0 The director and star of HANA-BI<\/em>, however, is a rare exception in the unforgiving Japanese entertainment industry.\u00c2\u00a0 He is legendary manzai<\/em> comedian Beat Takeshi\/Kitano Takeshi, a man worth becoming familiar with while living in Japan.\u00c2\u00a0 His decades-long career has spanned nearly every artistic medium available, surviving through the occasional scandal and even a devastating motorcycle crash in 1994.\u00c2\u00a0 HANA-BI<\/em> is his greatest work of art.<\/p>\n

HANA-BI <\/em>is a story in two acts.\u00c2\u00a0 The first half of the film explains why Detective Nishi (played by Kitano) is no longer a police officer nor mentally stable.\u00c2\u00a0 In a single day, his best friend and partner is shot and paralyzed, he is informed that his wife will not recover from her leukemia and, worst of all, he blames these problems on himself.\u00c2\u00a0 Did I mention that before this he also lost a young daughter?\u00c2\u00a0 And that yakuza<\/em> are constantly hounding him about debts?\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 However, you can only drink so much lemonade before it starts making you sick.\u00c2\u00a0 And Nishi can only (brutally) beat up so many yakuza<\/em> debt-collectors before it catches up to him.<\/p>\n

The second act <\/em>of HANA-BI <\/em>focuses on the relationship between Nishi and his wife.\u00c2\u00a0 Following advice from her doctor, Nishi takes his wife on vacation (with money he acquires by robbing a bank) so that she may enjoy what remaining time she has left.\u00c2\u00a0 The trip serves as the last stand for their life together, eventually leading to the best ending I have ever seen in a movie.\u00c2\u00a0 I am not exaggerating: the final moments of HANA-BI <\/em>are so awesome that your heart might explode (that <\/em>was an exaggeration).<\/p>\n

Thanks to HANA-BI<\/em>, <\/em>the number one reason I love Japanese films is that I love the soundtracks.\u00c2\u00a0 There is an indescribable \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sound\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that is unique to Japanese music, and not because it comes from a traditional instrument like the shamisen<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 No, the sound is a modern one; it is in the music that resonates on the streets in my imagination\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s version of Akihabara and in many SEGA games like Sonic the Hedgehog<\/em> and Phantasy Star Online<\/em>. <\/em>This distinct sound gives the music a Japanese \u00e2\u20ac\u0153feel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that never fails to draw a strong emotional response from me, whether it is in a game, a film or even just songs \u00c3\u00a0 la carte.<\/em><\/p>\n

Composer Joe Hisaishi (who has also scored many Miyazaki Hayao films) created a soundtrack for HANA-BI <\/em>that has that same powerful effect.\u00c2\u00a0 HANA-BI <\/em>is a serious drama, but there is ample violence in the film and there are moments that are very funny as well.\u00c2\u00a0 The actors rarely speak and never wear their hearts on their sleeves; a recurring shot in HANA-BI <\/em>is of Nishi staring directly at the camera without even the slightest hint of emotion in his face.\u00c2\u00a0 Therefore, the action and the comedy threaten to steal the show.\u00c2\u00a0 However, the focus never shifts away from the characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 emotional experience thanks to Hisaishi, whose score makes their feelings something tangible. The long, disconcerting shots of Nishi provide an opportunity to understand the character in a way his own words could never accurately express, while the hauntingly beautiful music will make the heavy weight on his heart feel as if it were on your own. Above all, the brilliant soundtrack is what brings me back to HANA-BI <\/em>again and again.<\/p>\n

HANA-BI <\/em>is the best Japanese movie ever made and this review hardly does it justice.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it <\/em>was not directed by Ozu or Kurosawa nor can it be found on any \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all-time greatest films\u00e2\u20ac\u009d lists.\u00c2\u00a0 As far as I am concerned, however, HANA-BI<\/em> is the most important Japanese film I have ever seen.\u00c2\u00a0 There is something special in the violence, the humor, the drama, and the soundtrack <\/em>that ignited my passion for Japan and its culture; that passion eventually brought me here. \u00c2\u00a0Even if HANA-BI<\/em> does not end up changing your life, it is a film that cannot be missed.<\/p>\n

Thanks for watching!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HANA-BI is the best Japanese movie ever made. Need proof? In 1997, it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, one of the highest honors in the film industry. Need more? In 2005, it changed my life (which is also a pretty big deal).<\/p>\n

Have you ever noticed that students quote the same joke (Toose!) over and over for months but eventually the joke (Ichi, ni, SAN!) mysteriously disappears? This occurs because Japanese comedians frequently fade into obscurity as quickly as they rose to popularity. The director and star of HANA-BI, however…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":31,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[9,95,27],"tags":[26],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/hanabi-e1281490236676.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}