Movies Sonatine 1993

[Guel Jeturk]

Sonatine is a 1993 Japanese yakuza film directed, written and edited by Takeshi Kitano, who also stars in the film. It won numerous awards and became one of Kitano's most successful and praised films, garnering him a sizable international fan base.

Murakawa, a Tokyo-based yakuza enforcer, has grown tired of gangster life. He is sent by his boss to Okinawa, supposedly to mediate a dispute between their allies, the Nakamatsu and Anan clans.

Murakawa openly suspects the assignment is an attempt to have him removed and even beats up one of his colleagues, Takahashi, but ends up going with his men. He finds that the dispute is insignificant, the group's temporary headquarters is bombed and his men are ambushed in a bar, leaving several of them dead.

Action, Crime, Drama, Romance Thriller

Director: Takeshi Kitano
Writer: Takeshi Kitano
Stars: Takeshi Kitano, Aya Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe

Please don't spoil, Thank you.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Of course! We won't spoil
Another great recommendation though, I love me some Yakuza stuff

That thumbnail in the video kinda reminds me of Takeshi's Castle

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

I fucking adore Kitano so much, I recently watched Violent Cop and it was such a perfect cinematic experience, I feel he is a mixture of Bressonian and Rohmer sensibilities when he allows the scene and world to breathe for a moment followed by explosive destruction and annihilation, it's akin to the Yugoslavian Black Wave

 

[Parasite_Steve]

Kitano is such a fascinating artist. On tv he does almost nothing but insanely silly stuff (if you only know takeshi‘s castle you have no idea just how silly) or engages in borderline cringeworthy childish humor yet his movies are slow, thoughtful, emotional, atmospheric, sometimes shockingly and abruptly violent and so full of quiet humanity. It’s as if Sacha Baron Cohen had directed Eastern Promises.

Sonatine is one of my favorite films of his. It takes a couple of very unusual quirky turns for a yakuza movie to the point where it almost feels like a deconstruction of the genre, certainly of the characters you are used to seeing in it. There are definitely a couple of nods to Fukasaku‘s Sympathy for the underdog. Incidentally watched both back to back when I spent the holidays in Okinawa a couple of years ago and I found sonatine to be the superior film by far.

 

[OverTheMoon]

Something which always interested me about Kitano's work is how his style evolved over the years. There was something beautiful in seeing how he made movies as time went on but his work is very distinct, especially when you compare his early movies to his most recent ones.

Definitely one of my favorite directors of all time. I will always watch anything he makes. I wish all of Takeshi's Castle was available in English.

Post automatically merged: Mar 22, 2025

Kitano is such a fascinating artist. On tv he does almost nothing but insanely silly stuff (if you only know takeshi‘s castle you have no idea just how silly) or engages in borderline cringeworthy childish humor yet his movies are slow, thoughtful, emotional, atmospheric, sometimes shockingly and abruptly violent and so full of quiet humanity. It’s as if Sacha Baron Cohen had directed Eastern Promises.

Sonatine is one of my favorite films of his. It takes a couple of very unusual quirky turns for a yakuza movie to the point where it almost feels like a deconstruction of the genre, certainly of the characters you are used to seeing in it. There are definitely a couple of nods to Fukasaku‘s Sympathy for the underdog. Incidentally watched both back to back when I spent the holidays in Okinawa a couple of years ago and I found sonatine to be the superior film by far.

Speaking of Fukasaku, do you like the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series? (Yakuza Papers) That also includes the New Battles movies too.

 

[_Lorenzo_]

Kitano's filmography is always interesting and in some cases disruptive. I really liked Kid's Return and in a completely different genre Dolls although very dramatic. Certainly among Japanese directors he is among my favorite....

 

[Deleted member 179251]

My personal favorite Kitano is Kikujiro, Hanabi, and Violent Cop, but yeah, I can see the appeal behind Sonatine a lot. It is a very deconstructing movie of traditional yakuza genre. While Yakuza and gangster films may have protagonist who have become densensitized to the violence around them they still decide to have cool action scenes or violent scenes to keep audience entertained. But in case of Sonatine, it tries to showcase the state of its protagonist's minds not through constant violence around him in violent scenarios, but also in stuff like childish games and romance, even during the

Spoiler: spoiler

the final scene where he kills everyone, it just focuses more on his mute expression to emphasize how much the protagonist devoid of joy from killing

. It is a really fascinating film and one that is definitely elevated with an equally amazing score by Hisaishi.