Hana-bi

Tyler Cowen considers his favorite Japanese gangster movie: "Should I go with Sonatine? I don't know them all."

I don't know them all either, but in this category I prefer a different Takeshi Kitano movie, Fireworks -- or Hana-bi in Japanese -- that came out a few years later. There's a small movie theater next door to the building I grew up in that, back when I was in high school showed tons and tons of gangster and martials arts movies from Japan and Hong Kong so I became surprisingly well-versed in these sub-genres.

Comments

A great film

Posted by Vik N | May 19, 2008 12:16 PM

I know that its about as disturbing as any single film that I've ever seen, but I loved Ichi the Killer if you see it as more of a yakuza flick like I do. Boiling Point is pretty great too.

Posted by Derrick | May 19, 2008 12:22 PM

The Gangster in "Tampopo" was pretty cool, but he dies quickly.
.

Posted by Grand Moff Texan | May 19, 2008 12:26 PM

Tokyo Drifter wins easily.

Posted by Petey | May 19, 2008 12:27 PM

Hana-bi definitely makes an impression. I can't say I really "enjoyed" watching it, but certain scenes from that movie stick with you and I've found them popping into my head many times in the two years since I've seen it.

Posted by jim | May 19, 2008 12:55 PM

Matthew,
Is there some legal/professional reason you linked to the Amazon listing instead of wikipedia or IMDB?

Wikipedia and IMDB are both much more useful sources of information then an advertising listing.

Posted by Christopher Colaninno | May 19, 2008 1:02 PM

Here's an non-commercial link for you: Ha ha

Posted by jim | May 19, 2008 1:13 PM

"I became surprisingly well-versed in these sub-genres"

Jesus fucking Christ Matt. Why don't you just suck your own penis for the whole class and get it over with.

You grow more and more conceited every day.

Try some humility. You have no idea how to write about anything, unless it somehow includes "that's why I'm so smart".

uggh!

Posted by volum | May 19, 2008 1:25 PM

This may not be the most popular choice for yakuza connoisseurs, but for me the most transfixing film of the genre is "Afraid to Die" (1960 - "Karakkaze Yaru", so IMDB tells me)

The quasi-Decadent novelist Mishima Yukio takes on the role of an indecisive, temporizing gangster. It's like watching Huysmans (or perhaps the Oscar Wilde of "Salome") fast-forward 60 years and turn himself into a character from Breathless or A Band Apart. The juxtaposition of the two sensibilities is exceedingly strange. Given Mishima's later career as a right-wing militarist, the aesthete-as-tough-guy pose in this film feels like a dry run.

Posted by m.croche | May 19, 2008 1:33 PM

m.croche, if you really want to be weirded out by a Mishima role, try "Black Lizard," which he wrote, and appears briefly as a human statue in.

Posted by Persia | May 19, 2008 1:46 PM

Hana-bi is Beat Takeshi's best film overall, if you ask me, although Sonatine is arguably better as a Yakuza flick. You can't really go wrong with Takeshi - Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Brother, Gonin - they're all great.

Away from him and in a very different style, the first hour or so of Yakuza zombie flick Versus is the funniest, silliest thing you've ever seen. It loses its way a bit after that.

Posted by Ginger Yellow | May 19, 2008 2:11 PM

Hana-bi is my favorite Takeshi film, besides Battle Royale. The ending really got to me. I was suprised to find that Beat's an artist and made the paintings in that film.

Posted by KevinD | May 19, 2008 2:26 PM

Hana-Bi gets my vote, with Brother an honorable mention.

Posted by q | May 19, 2008 2:33 PM

I have a mild preference for Sonatine over Hana-bi, but they're clearly two of the best films of the 90's.

Posted by djw | May 19, 2008 2:54 PM

A couple loose notes. Takeshi stars in Battle Royale, but was not the director.

The thumbs-ups here for Brother are unwarranted; I would stack many other Kitano recommendations on top of it before even getting close to Brother, even if I liked it (I didn't). The movie was dull & forgettable, raising hopes of possible crossover appeal for more mainstream American audiences but ultimately disappointing on that count.

Hana-bi is great; but my personal favorite is Kids Return (some yakuza elements but not strictly gangsta as far as genre goes).

For my part the best, most unflinching yakuza movie I remember seeing is Takashi Miike's "remake" of Graveyard of Honor

Posted by essrog | May 20, 2008 1:35 AM

Argh!! Now I remember: Youth of the Beast, directed by Seijun Suzuki. That's my favorite. I suck at this game

Posted by essrog | May 20, 2008 1:43 AM

"I became surprisingly well-versed in these sub-genres"

Why would you expect that to be surprising?

Posted by aleks | May 20, 2008 6:06 AM

I've got to disagree on Brother. It's definitely not one of his all time best, but it is really good. It's much better on a second viewing, for a start, and it's very funny.

Posted by Ginger Yellow | May 22, 2008 4:04 PM