Fireworks a quarter of a century
On September 3, 1997, Takeshi Kitano's film "Fireworks" premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. Takeshi Kitano acted in this picture in several roles, including writing the script, playing the lead role, participating in the editing ...
A curious coincidence: in the reviews of the Kitano's film by blogger from Bahrain Mohamed Sultan and by Russian film critic Yevgeny Nefyodov there is supposition that the impetus for the creation of the film was a head injury that Kitano received as a result of falling from a motorcycle during an accident in 1994. It is difficult to say how much that accident affected the birth of the idea of creating a "Fireworks", but it is absolutely certain that it made serious changes in the appearance of the actor and director, leading to paralysis of the right side of the face. And also, "thanks" to this accident, more precisely, to the process of recovery after it, Kitano created those drawings that decorated the picture.
The translation of the film's title, oddly enough, on the one hand, is not entirely accurate, but on the other hand, the most correct. The fact is that the original name consists of two Japanese hieroglyphs 花 and 火. The first means "flowers", a symbol of life and love, the second - "fire", a symbol of cruelty and violent death. Putting a hyphen between these two hieroglyphs, Takeshi Kitano denoted the synthesis of two opposite images, one of which is a symbol of destruction, and the other is a symbol of birth and renewal.
At the Venice Film Festival Takeshi Kitano's film "Fireworks" was awarded the main award - the Golden Lion. Also in 1997, the European Film Academy awarded the film "Fireworks" with its Screen International Award, which is awarded to the best film made outside of Europe.
A year later, in 1998, "Fireworks" by Takeshi Kitano was nominated for the French César Award. But the French film academy considered the British film "Brassed Off" directed by Mark Herman to be more worthy of their award. And only in 1999 Takeshi Kitano's film "was noticed" at home: the Japanese Film Academy nominated it for its award in 11 categories. But the victory was awarded only in one: for the Best Music Score.
The aforementioned Mohamed Sultan noted in his review: "this film is Kitano’s most personal work to date. A well crafted piece of cinema that tackles everything from friendship, love, and vengeance. Hana-Bi is Kitano at his best, a marvelous achievement that defies cinematic conventions and the Golden Lion was the least award it deserved. In fact, it is sad to say that this might be the greatest film that Kitano will have ever directed (I hope I’m wrong). ... To all of you who have yet to see this film, you are in for the treat of your life!"
Yevgeny Nefyodov assessed the film "Fireworks" as follows: "Takeshi Kitano, with special artistic power and clarity, expressed his own understanding of the world, which is at the same time cruel, unrighteous, ugly, torn apart by the fire of base human desires, bringing death and destruction. And ... as indescribably beautiful as a flower, concealing eternal renewal, every second showing the miracle of birth, fair in the highest account."
Roger Ebert rated Takeshi Kitano's Fireworks with three out of four stars. At the same time, in his review, Ebert gave such a description of the plot of the picture: "The pattern of the movie is: Ordinary casual life, punctuated by sharp, clinical episodes of violence." At the same time, he emphasized that this "movie is not about action, but about consequences and states of mind."
The film was screened in many countries, but most importantly, it was the first Japanese film released in South Korea since the end of World War II.
The rating of the film by ordinary moviegoers is characterized by the following data: 65% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of Takeshi Kitano's film "Fireworks" according to FilmGourmand version was 8,647, which allowed it to take 266th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
