Synopsis
Murakawa, an aging Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life, is sent by his boss to Okinawa along with a few of his henchmen to help end a gang war, supposedly as mediators between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, his group is attacked in an ambush. The survivors flee and make a decision to lay low at the beach while they await further instructions.
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Cast
- Takeshi KitanoAniki Murakawa
- Aya KokumaiMiyuki
- Tetsu WatanabeUechi
- Masanobu KatsumuraRyoji
- Susumu TerajimaKen
- Ren OsugiKatagiri
- Tonbo ZushiKitajima
- Ken'ichi YajimaTakahashi
- Eiji MinakataThe Hit Man
- Houka KinoshitaKitajima Gang Member
Recommendations
- 88
Chicago Sun-Times
It shows how violent gangster movies need not be filled with stupid dialogue, nonstop action and gratuitous gore. Sonatine is pure, minimal and clean in its lines. - 83
The A.V. Club
Like the character he plays, Kitano directs the film in a style that alternates between tenderness and brutality, making it a relentlessly tense suspense film one minute and a gentle character study the next. Either half would make Sonatine worth seeing. But taken together as the story of a man who regains his soul but whose face remains permeated with the knowledge of its inevitable loss, it becomes an artful gangster film, Yakuza poetry, and essential viewing. - 80
The New York Times
Sonatine, made in 1994, predates the Japanese director's art-house hit Fireworks by three years and is arguably stronger than its successor. - 80
The Guardian
Mostly, Kitano is as expressionless as Buster Keaton, but now and then a smile breaks out on that weather-beaten face. He doesn't use much camera movement either, but the combination of understatement and outrageousness is unique, and oddly appealing. - 80
Time Out
Challenging, witty, adventurous and utterly singular. - 75
Chicago Reader
Kitano has his problems; for instance, he hasn't quite figured out how to create fully dimensional, interesting women. But at a time when action movies typically hand us a canned experience, his pictures carry a charge of originality. - 70
Film Threat
Kitano treated us to a similarly complex crime drama, Fireworks, but Sonatine (which was made in 1994) is a darker, deeper, more polished work. - 67
Austin Chronicle
If you feel hostile toward art that not only confuses you but then also suggests that your confusion is precisely the point, you'll probably want to pass on Sonatine. But if disciplined, minimalist storytelling, formal innovation, and contemplation of mystery for its own sake appeals to you, a real feast awaits you in the films of Takeshi Kitano.
