Sonatine

A+

Directed by Takeshi Kitano

Takeshi Kitano is without a doubt one of Japan's most consistenly exciting and original directors which makes it all the more puzzling that he is still only marginally well known in North America. Most Western audiences familiar with Kitano probably first became acquainted with Kitano the actor, and not Kitano the director, due to his starring role in Kinji Fukasaka's "Battle Royale." This is a shame because Kitano has a number of fine directorial efforts to his name, most notably "Sonatine" which I feel is his most complete and accomplished work.

"Sonatine" revolves around Murukawa (played by Kitano), a succesful Tokyo yakuza who is sent to Okinawa with a motley crew of fellow gangsters to settle a dispute between rival factions on the island. When they arrive they are immediately double crossed and must seek refuge in a dilapidated shack on the beach until things blow over and Murukawa can go back to serve up some revenge to his former boss and his cronies.

The plot itself is much less conventional than it sounds, as most of the action in "Sonatine" does not focus on gunplay or fight scenes but rather on Murukawa's gang whiling away their time on the beach, trying to stave off boredom. In their efforts to amuse themselves they revert to childish shenanigans such as building a sumo ring out of seaweed, digging sandtraps for each other on the beachfront, having a makeshift "Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots" tournament and even staging an epic gang battle armed with roman candles (although Murukawa breaks the rules and starts shooting at the opposing side with his .44) These moments of carelessness are, like in all of Kitano's action films, interrupted by scenes of stark violence which remind the viewer that in Kitano's world humour and cruelty are never very far apart. In this manner it resembles several other Kitano films such as "Hana-Bi" and "Violent Cop" where violence and humour serve as contrasting undercurrents to films where, on the surface at least, not much happens. "Sonatine," however, contains a mood and pace that is either absent or incomplete in his other films and in this it hoists itself above Kitano's other major works as his most realized and important achievement.