Firework, directed by Takeshi Kitano, is one of the director’s best films. The most powerful and meaningful, the film became a genuinely iconic one. It is noteworthy that the very title of the film already contains a complex interpretation. The Japanese word hanabi means fireworks, but it is hyphenated as Hana-bi. Hana translates to flowers, a symbol of life and love, and bi, which translates to fire, a symbol of cruelty and violent death.
Firework is filmed succinctly and to some extent sparingly, but every scene, every gesture, and the frame is saturated with certain symbols. Provencher and Dillon assert that in the first half of the film Yoshitaka Nishi barely speaks a word, and in the second half, he barely speaks a dozen words (143). In Firework, words are useless, there is an action that does not need to be explained, and there is contemplation that makes the audience think.
The film is unusual because it is a mixture of completely different genres: comedy, tragedy, action, and melodrama. In addition to a harrowing love story, Kitano’s paintings of withered flowers and fireworks set the scene for a stern, secretive detective fighting to the death against bandits. In addition, it is full of authentic Japanese poetry, which manifests itself in purely contemplative shots, in sharp contrast to the rapidly developing action. In the film, a rather significant role is also played by primitivist, but fascinating and unusual pictures that accompany all the plots associated with the paralyzed Horibe. Thus, cruelty and violence are incredibly sided by the side with touching and sentimentality in this picture.
On the other hand, Rouge, directed by Stanley Kwan, is one of the finest films ever released in Hong Kong, a triumph of style and drama that every movie fan must-see. This mixed genre film can only be defined as a mystical melodrama, with elements of a thriller, a horror film, and even a historical film. A mystical melodrama is because the film tells the story of the ghost of a girl who committed suicide in 1934 – as she thinks, together with her lover. Then the action is transferred to 1987, with periodic flashbacks again in the 30s. At the same time, the quality of the entourage for the movement of the main characters of both the 80s and 30s is excellently shown. Thus, the mixing of styles in this film lends depth and complexity to this film.
Work Cited
Provencher, Ken, and Mike Dillon. Exploiting East Asian Cinemas: Genre, Circulation, Reception. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.