Who’d have expected a Japanese TV host and comedian to turn to such poignant filmmaking? Winner of the Golden Lion, Fireworks has proven to be one of Takeshi Kitano’s best films: a masterpiece of sublime simplicity and staccato force, combating unsparing violence with bare sentimentality.
Japanese auteur Takeshi Kitano pays homage to both The Wizard of Oz and Chaplin’s The Kid in this hypnotic, heart-warming drama. Kitano clashes the tough guy yakuza image of his titular character with the bittersweet, yearning naiveté of childhood. Joe Hisaishi’s score is, as ever, extraordinary!
What happens when a Japanese yakuza ends up in L.A.? For that matter, what happens when Japanese phenomenon Takeshi Kitano (Zatôichi, Battle Royale) writes, directs and stars in an American gangster film? The results are classic Kitano: startling violence, deadpan humor, and unexpected emotion.
Once the darling of the art-film world, Jiang Wen set the local box office ablaze with this rip-roaring action spectacular. With a star-studded cast headlined by Chow Yun Fat, Let the Bullets Fly takes to the boondocks of 1920s China for a gleefully madcap, elaborately political genre mash-up.
