Sonatine

'Beat' Takeshi has a stand up comedy show in his own country and, for sure, Sonatine has its fair share of humour. Take, for example, the hilarious and bizarre sequence where two of Kitano's gangster companions act out a Benny-Hill style, fast motion sumo contest, or the tasty one line exchanges between Kitano and the giri he meets on the beach; it's clear that as a director he has good comic timing and the ability to comfortably juxtapose laughs and riveting action sequences.

However, don't get the impression that Sonatine is a comedy; it has the rather disturbing and tragic project of tracing the gradual annihilation of Kitano's Yakuza gang after it gets involved in the mob business of an Okinawa ally. Unlike an American gangster movie, whose pace and plot would probably build to an explosive climax, Sonatine shatters the continuity of any climactic process with periods of almost meditative serenity and inaction as Kitano and his men try to weather the storm of violence at a beachfront retreat. Nevertheless it's undeniable that Sonatine does manage a rousing climax as Takeshi strides through the double doors of an office building to engage the enemy in an intense gun battle which is teasingly viewed from the parking lot as a series of flashes and shadows thrown up by the blaze of machine gun fire.

An amazing portrayal of violence as a modern way of life, Sonatine is cool, stylish, intelligent, funny, and quite unlike anything you've seen in the last couple of years. Don't miss the tasteful still life shots after the credits.

Review by Iain Harral
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96