structuring of hana-bi

[Aaron Gerow]

>i think there's a logical break (or rupture?) in the conception of the 
>narrative's perspectivity. the film relates to the events in nishis past on 
>two levels: the repeated flashback (the shooting of the gangster) which is 
>obviously shown as a subjective moment of memorization. but what about the 
>presentation of the first episode in the past (nishi and horibe on their way 
>to the place of the gangster's observation; nishi going to hospital and 
>horibe being shot)? it can't be nishi's memory of the past as he is not 
>present in all the scenes. but kitano exactly suggests just that, when 
>during the car-ride he inter-cuts a shot of nishi leaning on his car in 
>front of horibe's house, which is the filmic present.

Having not seen the film for a couple of years, I would hesitate to 
comment on specific shot structures, but I would suggest you hold off on 
trying to ascribe subjectivity to all of such scenes in Kitano's films.  
As I have written before, and as many who talk about him in Japan 
emphasize, Kitano's early work especially tends to avoid point-of-view 
and other subjective structures.  When there are "subjective-seeming" 
structures, there is usually a degree of ambiguity remaining (such as, in 
an "apparent" POV structure, there will be a shot of a person looking, a 
shot of "what's seen," and then, instead of the usual return to the 
person seeing, a shot of something completely different).  Even a 
supposedly "normal" POV shot like the one of Masaki looking out at the 
parking lot in the Okinawa airport in Boiling Point seems somehow odd 
(both geographically and because Masaki doesn't react to what he 
"sees"--we are left wondering if he really did see anything).  Other 
"subjective" structures in that film (like Uehara's "flash-forward" in 
the car, or the entire film being Masaki's "dream") are also suspicious.  
This and other strategies, I would argue, lead to a denuding of 
internality from Kitano's characters.

I would also add that other contemporary directors like Aoyama Shinji 
refuse or at least play with subjective structures.

Hana-bi gets more difficult because, as I argued once in a Japanese 
article, I think some of the subjective structures refused in the earlier 
films return to a certain degree.  Still, I would warn you to be careful 
about ascribing subjectivity to certain scenes when analyzing their 
temporality.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
International Student Center
Yokohama National University
79-1 Tokiwadai
Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
JAPAN
E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
Phone: 81-45-339-3170
Fax: 81-45-339-3171