Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

An Exercise In Nonsense

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Well this is the third and final film in the 'Beat' Takeshi trilogy that I picked up on DVD, the first two being VIOLENT COP and BOILING POINT. SONATINE is the best of the trilogy, the most mature and the film with the best atmosphere. Despite the violent shenanigans of the film's plot, involving rival gangsters killing each other, for the most part this is a tranquil outing shattered only by bursts of extreme violence. It's also a film with a lot of humour, most of it utterly surreal (such as when two wrestlers become toys thanks to some sped-up camera effects). For most of the film, it's simply a bunch of guys having fun at a beach house, by pulling pranks on each other and playing games. Despite that the film never becomes boring because there's a simmering undercurrent of violence that you know has to erupt at some point.Once again the presence of 'Beat' Takeshi lifts the movie another level and the whole film hinges on his outstanding performance. This time he's a typical gangster, plagued with a hidden desire to kill himself. Takeshi has mastered the Japanese 'cold face' well yet it's also a pleasure to see him in some warmer moments as I get the feeling he isn't such a nasty character this time around – certainly not like the rapist he played in BOILING POINT. The supporting cast is very good indeed and the photography on the film is excellent. The violence, in the form of bloody shoot-outs, is nothing new, yet executed with a certain level of finesse that makes it stand out. Watch out for the shoot-outs where time (and the characters) literally stand still as fates are meted out. Add lots of bizarre stuff going on, Japanese humour, and a great twist ending, and you have what amounts to a nice, unusual little film.

Takeshi Kitano writes and directs his gangster films like Ernst Hemingway wrote his prose. "Sonatine" is a lean, mean movie about yakuza gunsels roughing it in Okinawa on a mission to settle a dispute. There is a lot of violence, but it's not the kind that makes you want to go out and shoot somebody. The difference between an action shoot'em up and Kitano's "Sonatine" is that everything is matter of fact, ordinary in a way that makes everything seem doubly realistic. These gangsters don't pose and shoot; they shoot. If Sergio Leone perpetuated the 'looks can kill' stare, then Kitano has created the 'look that wonders.' These tight-lipped tough guys say more with their glassy-eyed stares than they would if they were exchanging papers of meaningless dialogue. You have to use your imagination with "Sonatine" and Kitano forces you with gunfights where you see muzzle flashes in windows or on faces like a artsy light show. Some people will complain that the 94-minute melodrama is humdrum, but it is far from boring. If there were ever a movie about violence that shows how meaningless a life of violence is, "Sonatine" qualifies for that honor. Kitano delivers another hypnotic performance.

Murakawa is a member of the Yakuza with his own territory, which is very profitable despite his tiredness with the violence and unrelenting grimness that accompanies his "job". When his boss instructs him to go to disputed territory in Okinawa, Murakawa fears the worst, knowing the last time saw him lose several men, but goes anyway. When the supposed "negotiations" are clearly not going to happen, he has already lost several men and has no option but to make a strategic retreat ahead of further action. Holding up in a beach house on the quiet coastline, Murakawa and his men start to enjoy the freedom away from their daily lives, but the reality of their situation cannot be ignored forever.Playing a similar character to other films, Kitano uses Sonatine to inject humour and joy de vivre into the mix while still delivering on the themes and with the style we have come to expect. The plot with this film offers a period away from the violence that is not so much narrative as physical and Murakawa and his men hold up on a beach to regroup and decide their course of action. It is in this period of the story where Murakawa's tiredness over his life becomes actions rather than just something he says (which was quite an unusually clumsy line to find in this film early on). Where other films have depicted this tiredness as a deadness or stillness in their characters during moments of violence, Sonatine goes beyond this and also has the characters responding to the addition of more to their lives. I can understand why some viewers (happily not many) have seen the beach-set material to be "nothing happening" but to me it is the most important part of the film as it provides more to the characters and makes the rest of the film that bit more tragic.Of course it does the flip side of this as well, which is the deadness and apparent lack of emotion, because it is required to round the character out and make the conclusion such a natural and understandable thing. Those familiar with Kitano's other films will be used to the style and it works to very good effect here, particularly in gun battles where the "winners" only seem slightly more alive than those that are dead – an aspect that may annoy those expecting John Woo action but not to those that understand the characters and how they are being presented (although I will be honest and say that some moments are really a touch too static even by his standards). To the characters violence is something that has become accepted as part of their lives and not in a macho way but in a "beaten-down" fashion. Outside of this the visual style is typically Kitano and I do really like how unusual the static camera and unusual shot-selection works, opening scenes focusing on a character for a few seconds before anything happens etc. It forces the viewer into a mindset of patience that suits the story.In his oft-played role, Kitano is really good as he understands his character and, with minimal expression helps the audience do so too. I did enjoy seeing more playfulness come from his creation in this film and he rose to that also – always feeling like the same character and not just like he has flicked a switch to become "fun". He is well supported by his fellow Yakuza, who are not as far gone but do also display a tangible sense of freedom when they find themselves on the beach – still engaging in acts that "normal" people would deem violent, but at the same time also recognisable as moving away from the nihilistic nurture of their "day jobs".Currently I am trying to make an effort to watch less of whatever happens to be released in any given week but get back through work that I have not seen for decades or have never seen and should. This has meant that I have seen about four or five Kitano films over the last month or two and I do feel that Sonatine is the one where the themes and style that he so often employs come together in the most effective and meaningful way. The stilted and superficially cold style may put some people off if they do not know what to expect but this is not a significant obstacle to overcome for what is an impressive, stylish, engaging and creative film.

I was lucky to discover Kitano's famous style in the release of Sonatine and Hana-bi in a small movie theater in Paris. Well, I must say both movies convinced me Kitano is one of the greatest current movie directors.Sonatine is outstanding in various aspects. Its minimalism, either by the dialog scarcity, the remarkable ellipses, or the protagonist's blank face, convert the movie into a nearly pure cinematographic work, rather than a theater work adapted for the screen. The photography and camera motions can feel somewhat disturbing at the beginning, but this is only because they are unusual. Actually, they serve very well the movie, and the beach scenes are gorgeous. The music is another great score of the movie, it is original and perfectly fits the movie atmosphere when it is cast.Now, about the plot: I wish there were more movies with such a sense of humanity. The violence-calls-violence topic is not new, but here it is treated a very appealing way. Kitano managed to develop each character enough to make all of them interesting -- and the actors serve this purpose pretty well. The plot shows how human we are all, whatever we do or have done and even when we lately discover the whole value of life. This is an exemplary statement, far far away from high box-office movie standards.The redemption topic was then told again in Hana-bi, which managed to be an even greater movie. This is possibly the only reason I don't rate Sonatine a 10/10.