(FIREWORKS)
1997

June 12, 2003
DVD
Japan
Japanese
103 minutes

A tough cop, who leaves the force to look after his dying wife and the family of a dead colleague, turns to crime to get the money he needs.

What was terrific about this probably-overrated Japanese film, was not the Wooish bloodshed and slow motion gunfights. It was everything that was happening that wasn't violent. It is confusing at first trying to figure out who is who and what happened when, but once you realize that a shootout has resulted in one man dead, and another paralyzed and alone, while our hero is suffering through his wife's last few days of life, it becomes pretty riveting. Beat Takeshi plays the cop who recently retired to care for his wife. He also wrote and directed. He has a scarred appearance and wide-eyes, sort of Peter Falkish. He doesn't have the handsome smoothness of Chow Yun Fat, although they dress alike.

Where he kicks the Hong Kong actioners' asses is in the touching, emotional acting portions. This is something that Woo and Fat have tried, but I've never taken seriously. We are supposed to read in Fat's eyes his loyalty and honor and love for his partners or whatever, but it is never there--we wait for the next double-fisted shootout. Takeshi seems to ooze sadness. When he meets the young widow of a fellow cop, we see that he can barely stand to be alive, while others die. People constantly tell him "it's not your fault, he died in the line of duty".

Most touching by far, are the scenes with his wife. They have settled into the rhythm of a married couple--she takes his dessert, he confiscates her cigarettes, he humors her during card games. There are few words spoken, in fact, I'm not sure that she says anything besides "thank you". He is not much more talkative, but we know what he's thinking in some way.

The paralyzed man tries his hand at painting and we feel his pain at his lost family and lost use of his legs as he sets out to reinvent himself.

It wasn't the greatest movie ever, but in spite of yourself, you'll find yourself really rooting for Takeshi's character because he seems so good inside.

Other films with Takeshi: Sonatine, which I saw a long time ago, but still remember a beach house where a gang hideout and a young man was trying to break his way into the gang. Tokyo Eyes where a teenager puts on a disguise and pulls guns on bullies.

*** Ebert
** Halliwells

9.2 Critical Consensus