Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese director I like very much. His films have a very strong personal style, and the themes often wander between the extremes of violence and tenderness. The former is like "The Ferocious Man" ", "Sonata", "Zatoichi", the latter such as "The Sea of Tranquility That Summer", "Kijiro's Summer" and so on.
Watching Takeshi Kitano's films, you are often amazed at the harmonious unity of violence and tenderness. "There is a tiger in the heart, sniffing the roses" is the best interpretation of Kitano Takeshi's film style. Violence and tenderness are like the A and B sides of Takeshi Kitano. They contradict each other but coexist with each other, confront each other but achieve each other.
There is a bleak beauty to Kitano's films. He liked to use blueish cool tones to convey sadness, a style that came to be known as "Kitano Blue". In fact, in addition to blue, Takeshi Kitano also particularly likes another color, that is, red, the red of blood. Tranquil blue and bright blush are dyed together to create the magnificent and unique video world of Kitano Takeshi. For example, this "HANA-BI" in 1997.
In Japanese, HANA means flower and BI means fire. The literal translation of the movie "HANA-BI" is called "Hana-Bi". Flowers are quiet, fragile, beautiful and fleeting; fire is throbbing, dangerous, splendid but can bring warmth. Through "Fireworks", Kitano Takeshi expressed his clear attitude towards human nature: towards beauty, he has infinite tenderness; towards evil, he hates evil.
Kei Nishi (Take Kitano) is a taciturn detective. This man never speaks lightly unless necessary. Whether he treats his colleagues, bad people, or his wife, he cherishes words like gold. This silent man prefers action to speech.
In an arrest mission, because Xi Jiajing failed to subdue the suspect at the first time, two colleagues who were on the mission were killed and the other injured. In a rage, Xi Jiajing shot all the bullets from the pistol into the suspect's head. Because of serious negligence, the man lost his job as a police officer.
Xi Jiajing borrows a loan shark from a gang of hooligans. He used the money to buy paintbrushes, drawing paper and a beret worn by a painter for his crippled colleague, and the rest went to the widow of the colleague who died. In the face of their thanks, he remained silent.
Drinking in a bar, his colleagues advised him to open some, so that he would not take all the responsibility on himself. He was drinking and didn't speak.
Jiaolong went down to the sea to be played by shrimps, tiger fell to Pingyang and was bullied by dogs. The loan sharks found the policeman who had lost his prestige, and they humiliated him recklessly while clamoring for him to pay back the money. The silent man broke out, and he inserted a pair of chopsticks into each other's eyes.
In Takeshi Kitano's films, violence always arrives suddenly and without warning, taking people off guard. In the face of ubiquitous violence, Takeshi Kitano unequivocally erected the banner of "control violence with violence". In his view, the evil rooted in the heart of the human heart cannot be removed. In the face of the evil of human nature, he advocates eradication rather than pure education.
There is a scene in the film where a punk begged Xi Jia for mercy, Xi warned "I'll kill you next time" and then let him go. Unexpectedly, after this little gangster returned, he gathered a team of people and made a comeback. Some people are just so hopeless, they are born bad to the core, no matter how many times you give them a chance, they will be vicious. This time, the punk's wagging begging for mercy no longer works - Xi Jiajing shoots a bullet into his brain.
Takeshi Kitano's works never hide the evil of human nature, let alone his disgust and despair for the evil of human nature. This deep disgust and despair eventually evolved into the silence and sadness on the big screen. This is why Kitano Takeshi is so in love with "Kitano Takeshi Blue".
If the evil of human nature is like the boundless night, then the good things in the world are the fireworks that bloom in it - in that short but brilliant moment, the dark night sky is illuminated, and the long and boring life seems to have meaning. This reminds me of a line of dialogue from Sam in "The Lord of the Rings", "There's something good in this world, it's worth fighting for."
Viewers who have seen this film will be full of imagination and imagination about the pictures of the disabled policeman in the film. Imaginative paintings are impressive, in fact, they are all by Takeshi Kitano. Through these paintings, we can glimpse the softest corner of Kitano Takeshi's inner world.
In the vast majority of Japanese families, the husband will always say "I'm back" loudly when he comes home, and the wife will put down the affairs in hand and respond "Welcome home" with a smile. But when Xi Jiajing returned home, what was waiting and welcoming him was silence.
His wife was playing tangram obsessively, while Xi Jiajing was watching with great interest. After a while, he took out two strawberry cakes, handed one to his wife and the other to himself. Unexpectedly, his wife took his share too, with a "why not give it to me" expression on her face. The audience dropped their jaws in shock, but Xi Jiajing remained silent, except that the muscles on the right side of his face twitched nervously from time to time.
Audiences who are familiar with Takeshi Kitano know that the right side of Takeshi Kitano's face was disabled due to a car accident in his early years. Therefore, when the camera is aimed at Takeshi Kitano's silent and rigid face, his characters are often endowed with an air of mystery and absurdity. Probably feeling ashamed, his wife handed back a small strawberry on the cake to her husband. Facing his wife, the strawberry on the plate, and this absurd scene, the taciturn man cocked the corner of his mouth and smiled.
Like most works, Kitano sets a bleak and hopeless sense of fate for his character. The characters in the film usually have to fight against the environment and fate. However, in "Fireworks", the god of fate did not favor this poor man who entered middle age. Xi Jiajing has lost a child, a career, and now a family—his wife is terminally ill, and his days are numbered.
Fate can take away a man's career, family and everything, but it cannot take away a man's dignity. Facing the banishment of fate, Xi Jiajing made a decision, that is, to be an unyielding man. Xi Jiajing went to the junk car factory to buy a taxi and converted it into a police car. Then we saw the absurd and sad scene: a fake policeman driving a fake police car to rob a real bank.
Although Xi Jiajing is no longer a policeman, he still adheres to his principles of being a man-paying debts is one of them. After robbing the money, Xi Jiajing paid off the loan shark at one time with interest. Unexpectedly, the gangster with loan sharks forgot his righteousness and wanted to steal his remaining money. Whether I'm a police officer or not, I'll do justice - with this belief, on a snowy night, Xi Jiajing got into the car full of villains alone, and closed the door...
Only a gentleman can Lovers can be wicked, this sentence is really more appropriate in Xi Jiajing. When dealing with villains, he has the same cruelty and determination as the autumn wind sweeps the leaves, but when dealing with his lover, he has a childlike heart. In the last days of his wife, Xi Jiajing accompanied his wife to travel around. They went fishing by the lake together, went to the temple to ring the bell together, went to the Northland to enjoy the snow together, set off fireworks in the dark night together, and watched Yunjuan Yunshu together by the sea...
According to the investigation, the two policemen followed the trail of Xi Jiajing. to the seaside. Sitting in the car, Xi Jiajing saw the police car and two former colleagues in the rearview mirror. He lowered his head, took out his pistol, and silently loaded the two bullets.
At the seaside, facing the wind, Xi Jiajing didn't say a word, he just hugged his woman tightly. The wife snuggling in her husband's arms smiled and said the last word to his man, "Thank you."
For those who love each other, this sentence is enough.
The camera of the movie slowly moved from the two figures to the deep sea. After a while, two gunshots were heard outside the screen.
listen! That is the sound of fireworks blooming.
I would like to send this article to Takeshi Kitano, to this "most gentle hooligan".
This article is the author's original creation, and the pictures are all from the Internet. Thank you for any reprints that do not indicate the author and source.
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