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Police detective Nishi (Takeshi) ditches stakeout duty with his partner and best friend Horibe to visit his wife in hospital. During the visit he is informed that his wife's condition is incurable and terminal. Distraught and overwhelmed by the news, Nishi's world is completely shattered when news arrives that Horibe has been shot.
Events go from bad to worse. Now paralysed, confined to a wheelchair and without an income, Horibe is devastated when his wife leaves him, taking their only child. Nishi's wife has been discharged to spend her remaining days at home, her husband still wrestling with the guilt.
Nishi attempts to pull together the tragic strands of his life, absolve himself and minister to his loved ones firstly by borrowing money from disreputable Yakuza loansharks and then by pulling off an elaborate bank heist dressed in full police uniform.
Takeshi takes the lead role as the taciturn but stoic Nishi. Together with uniformly magnificent performances from the rest of his cast, a beautiful script that is a startling and successful mixture of tones and emotions and unerringly fabulous photography earned Hana-bi the grand prize at the Venice Film Festival and packed houses at London, Toronto, Rotterdam and Vancouver.
"This is not just a simple love story about a married couple... I wanted to portray life and death subjectively through the characters who took on life and death without escaping from them as they were confronted with cruel realities, when unexpected events suddenly befell them." - Takeshi Kitano
Nishi's determination to provide the expensive materials required for Horibe to take up painting and make his wife's final days as comfortable as possible propels the final reels of Hana-bi. Takeshi's ability to plumb emotion without venturing into the saccharin is legendary amongst his fans, as his ability to portray violence in a traditionally poetic Japanese fashion. With his Yakuza creditors and former friends on the force closing in, Nishi must face yet another trial of torment...