Rating: 
Summary: amazingly beautiful
Review: Hana-bi is a good example of an image-based movie, you can understand what is going on in the story by just watching the images, I think more than 75 percent of the film is silent (no dialogue). This is the first cop movie that actually made me feel so lonely and alienated(maybe hana-bi should not be classified as a cop movie), at the same time, learn to appreciate small moments in life a lot more.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most important international films ever made
Review: Nothing pisses me off more than when a movie forces emotion on its viewer (Titanic is an excellent example of this). When I saw Fireworks, I was awe-struck. It conveys a strong sense of emotion, and uses hardly any dialogue to make its point. Its no wonder that the film is based after Takeshi Kitano's own brush with mortality, that he is able to convey such an incredible story. This movie is an incredible juxtaposition of beauty and violence. One of the smaller intricacies that almost no one acknowledges is that all the art in the movie was created by Kitano. Although Takeshi Kitano has made some incredible movies in his career, I believe Fireworks to be the best (yes, even better than Violent Cop). There are very few films that move me emotionally, but this is one of those films.
Rating: 
Summary: Explosive yet sublime character study of a man on the edge.
Review: Fireworks is the winner of the top prize at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. This is a film of remarkable beauty and pathos. The story is about a detetive who is contorted by the chaos that surrounds him. His personal life is torn by tragedy and the scars that mar the memory of life as a cop. But you have never seen a film like Fireworks. Entertainment Weekly picked it as one of the Top Ten Films of 1998.
Rating:
Summary: The best movie I¿ve seen in the theatre. So glad to own it.
Review: They used to promote movies as being a every-genre combination, "filled with action, romance, laughs and drama," but it never really meant anything beyond poor story telling. If a movie tried this advertising approach now, everyone would think it ridiculous and refuse to see it. The amazing thing about Hana-bi (Fireworks) is, the combination really works. To even begin supplying plot details would waste your time and degrade the movie. It is a work of art in its entirety, including the original movie poster, which I'm afraid, is not on the box cover.
Rating:
Summary: Fire and Flower
Review: "Fireworks" is a direct translation of the Japanese title "Hanabi," which combines the two words "fire" and "flower." The title was chosen due to the juxtaposition of the calm beauty of a flower, and the burning intensity of fire, which perfectly captures the feeling of this Beat Takeshi masterpiece. I was expecting quite a different film, one more packed with violence and action, something more along the lines of a John Woo/Chow Yun Fat creation. Instead, this is a calm, understated and emotional film peppered with miniature explosions like...fireworks. The pacing of the film is typical of Japanese storytelling, patient and quiet allowing enough time for a story to build fully and characters to live and die on the screen. Takeshi gives such a complete performance, saying everything with a glance or a movement. Dialog is almost unnecessary, although when it does come it punctuates the scene fluently. He is equal parts warrior and lover, tender and hard. Kayoko Kishimoto delivers an equally wonderful performance as Miyuki, Nishi's wife, dying of leukemia yet able to charm with a smile. Visually, the movie is stunning, full of creative scenes and transitions. Takeshi knows when to have the action appear off-camera, and when to focus. The use of nature as an element in the film is beautiful, as the story moves from snow to sea to mountain. Takeshi "Beat" Kitano is one of Japan's greatest modern filmmakers, and "Fireworks" is one of his greatest film. A stunning film.
Rating:
Summary: Haiku + .45 Semi Automatic = Hana Bi
Review: Simply stated, the most important film of the 1990's; probably of the last twenty years. The film is in its entirety a meditative experience, combining a slow and calm build-up of chi or prana-force-energy with explosive violence. Beat Takeshi's violence, however, is not gratuitous, but righteous anger in action. As a schizoid world falls down around him, Takeshi takes the role of Samurai -- indeed, "such a man was already Samurai." This is a film of mystery, of soft color and light ocean breezes from the South China Sea, and of poetry. If the warrior immortalized in Book of Five Rings or Gitopanishad has an equivalent in modern times, surely it would be in this strange character, this Japanese-style Colonel Kurtz in Hana-Bi. But then, you must watch this film for yourself. You will not be the same person when it is over.
Rating:
Summary: sweet
Review: a video full of fireworks. this may also teach you just how to blow your apartment ceiling off, so you you will have some head space
Rating:
Summary: Haiku + .45 Semi Automatic = Hana Bi
Review: Simply stated, the most important film of the 1990's; probably of the last twenty years. The film is in its entirety a meditative experience, combining a slow and calm build-up of chi or prana-force-energy with explosive violence. Beat Takeshi's violence, however, is not gratuitous, but righteous anger in action. As a schizoid world falls down around him, Takeshi takes the role of Samurai -- indeed, "such a man was already Samurai." This is a film of mystery, of soft color and light ocean breezes from the South China Sea, and of poetry. If the warrior immortalized in Book of Five Rings or Gitopanishad has an equivalent in modern times, surely it would be in this strange character, this Japanese-style Colonel Kurtz in Hana-Bi. But then, you must watch this film for yourself. You will not be the same person when it is over.
Rating:
Summary: Fire and Flower
Review: "Fireworks" is a direct translation of the Japanese title "Hanabi," which combines the two words "fire" and "flower." The title was chosen due to the juxtaposition of the calm beauty of a flower, and the burning intensity of fire, which perfectly captures the feeling of this Beat Takeshi masterpiece. I was expecting quite a different film, one more packed with violence and action, something more along the lines of a John Woo/Chow Yun Fat creation. Instead, this is a calm, understated and emotional film peppered with miniature explosions like...fireworks. The pacing of the film is typical of Japanese storytelling, patient and quiet allowing enough time for a story to build fully and characters to live and die on the screen. Takeshi gives such a complete performance, saying everything with a glance or a movement. Dialog is almost unnecessary, although when it does come it punctuates the scene fluently. He is equal parts warrior and lover, tender and hard. Kayoko Kishimoto delivers an equally wonderful performance as Miyuki, Nishi's wife, dying of leukemia yet able to charm with a smile. Visually, the movie is stunning, full of creative scenes and transitions. Takeshi knows when to have the action appear off-camera, and when to focus. The use of nature as an element in the film is beautiful, as the story moves from snow to sea to mountain. Takeshi "Beat" Kitano is one of Japan's greatest modern filmmakers, and "Fireworks" is one of his greatest film. A stunning film.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Hana-Bi is a sometimes quirky, but wholely, achingly, sad movie. It is NOT "a masterpiece in violence" as one of the fluff quotes on the cover indicates. While there are occasional bursts of violence, they're quick and to the point, and, more than anything, used as character development; emotionally, the tone is constant and subdued, happily sad, and anyhing but violent. Stylistically, Hana-Bi sort of mashes up its timline, so that parts of scenes that have already happned, but havn't been shown yet, parts of scenes that havn't happened yet are spliced into the present, which serves the story and the tone well. Visually it ranges from fantastic to plain. My biggest complaint would be about the soundtrack, which is slightly cheesy, somewhat beautiful, approprate to the movie, but overused enough that at points it gets annoying (although the overuse makes room for a good effect). Of course, this stuff mostly isn't important enough to the movie that it could possibly degrade it. Hana-Bi is something you must see. However, the DVD release is pretty {bad}(really... what self respecting movie fan would consider hard coded subtitles "enchanced"?), which makes me want to recommend a rental rather than immediate purchase, unless a better release is made (pray) or you can get your hands on a decent region 2 import (I think the japanese dvd has english subtitles... of course it also costs 50 dollars...).
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