Darrell, Davis. “Reigniting Japanese Tradition with Hana-Bi.” Cinema Journal 40.4 (2001): 55-80. 

    This article, published in a cinema journal in 2001, reviews Kitano Takeshi’s 1997 film Hana-Bi, or “Fireworks,” in the context of Takeshi’s use of traditional Japanese icons in a modern, global gangster-film market. Immediately, the other main subject of the article is Akira Kurosawa, as demonstrated in the first sentence. In order to catch the audience’s interest, Takeshi is introduced as the greatest Japanese filmmaker since Akira Kurosawa by generic Western critics. The author, Darrell Davis, interrogates Takeshi’s personal message, however, when he questions whether “Japaneseness” in cinema is merely a marketing ploy by the filmmakers. He points to Takeshi’s meticulous attention to traditional Japanese customs in his films despite his public desire to be disavowed from a primarily Japanese identity. In a New York Times interview, for example, he criticizes Kurosawa’s adherence to stereotypical Japanese representations, while the next day asks for Kurosawa’s particular input and recommendations. Darrell asserts that perhaps Takeshi exploits the icon of Japanese cinema, Kurosawa, to garter a particular image for himself publicly, and then by censuring him plays a keen political tactic. Darrell moves on to the study of Takeshi’s work and Japanese cinema. He uses the three types of Japanese film as described by Kurosawa to structure the remainder of her analysis. According to Kurosawa, the three modes of Japanese film are the reflectionist, dialogic, and contamination models. Darrell ends by commenting on Hana-Bi’s release at the Cannes Film Festival and an ending remark on the work and Takeshi.

This article is useful to my study of Kurosawa’s Rashomon for two main reasons. First, the detailed descriptions of Kurosawa’s labeling of film genres offer a new level of discussion applicable to the film Rashomon. Secondly, the discourse about Kurosawa’s samurai films among the modern industry provides a look into the sustainability of Kurosawa’s films over time, of which his masterpiece Rashomon is included. Particularly, while many articles today celebrate Kurosawa’s work from a Western perspective, it is interesting to see how he is discussed by his Japanese peers.