Hana-Bi

Hana-Bi is written and directed by the versatile Japanese Takeshi Kitano who has also painted the canvases which appear in the film.

Kitano plays Nishe, a policeman, who decides to retire in order to devote himself to his terminally ill wife. He will do anything to keep his wife happy, even commit crimes and do business with the mafia.

Hana-Bi is a difficult, but rewarding movie to watch, for one thing because the story is not told in chronological order. It is a movie made of contrasts between sequences of exploding violence and moments of quiet poetry.