1997: Hana-bi (a.k.a. Fireworks)

Nishi, a policeman, has a dying wife, one partner dead and one in the wheelchair. He also has debts with the Yakuza and a taste for violence. But the plot isn't really important in this sparse Japanese film which puts most violence off-screen and works mostly through the interplay between Joe Hisaishi's brilliant score - the theme repeated in different versions, really -, the monochrome pictures and main actor Beat Takeshi's stoic one-note performance. In the last third the slow pacing is taken a little too far for my taste. (7)