Sonatine (1993)

Takeshi Kitano, or Beat Takeshi if you prefer, is a big name in Japanese cinema. Perhaps best known here for Boiling Point (1990), Takeshi’s fourth feature, Sonatine, was initially poorly received in Japan but received rave reviews in Europe, premiering at the Cannes film festival.

Centering around a yakuza, Murakawa (a truly astonishing performance from Takeshi Kitano) who is sent to Okinawa by his boss to settle a dispute between two clans, Sonatine is an anti-gangster picture, forgoing ultra violence for human emotion and existential dread, things that can be gleaned from Kitano’s facial expressions throughout the film, such is the brilliance of his performance.

That’s not to say there isn’t violence; when it arrives it’s swift and unflinching, but pitching these scenes at rare intervals across an otherwise minimalist and truly odd yakuza film, only serves to make Sonatine an even more intriguing and exceptional piece of film making.

Takeshi’s film is also frequently amusing, making you believe in the characters; the scenes when they’re laughing and seemingly happy are even more authentic when placed against the background of the hopeless situation they find themselves in.

Sonatine focuses on the nothing of the yakuza life in between the violence, a decision that, far from making the film a dull experience, pushes it into the realms of a masterpiece, and without doubt, one of the best (anti) gangster films ever made. 8.7/10