Customer Reviews

Sonatine [Region 2]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was surprised to read the negative reviews but in a way I understand. The movie is not for everyone. In my younger days, I would have felt that the movie was too slow. But now I think this is one of the greatest movies. The movie moves at a slow pace but that is the point. You get to know the people "as they are", not in an action packed or glamorous way.

I especially liked the end "fight scene" where he takes out the bosses, note how he "says it all without saying anything". This is a "must see" movie...

-CC-

this is the first takeshi movie i saw, and a few hours ago i just watched his other masterpiece, FIREWORKS. i now pray for the distribution of his earlier movies in this country, because the director of these two is a man of real genius. certainly better than any american director working today. takeshi's direction and acting are literally flawless, with a stoic lyricism remniscent of Hemingway's writing. he's the best asian director of our time.

A brilliant, highly stylistic deconstruction of the film noir genre. Those who are familiar with the yakuza movies, too, will appreciate just how much of a radical departure this is from the conventions of the genre. All the action takes place in the most incongruous places, the yakuza life is portrayed (highly realistically but hilariously) as long stretches of interminable boredom disrupted by totally uncontrollable bursts of violence, characters often stare directly into the camera completely ignoring the matching eyelines (a la Ozu Yasujiro). John Woo aficionados will be disappointed; donft expect macho posturing or hail of bullets. By the way, the video package available through Quentin TarrantinoÕs Rolling Thunder line is transferred from an incredibly clean and crisp print, although not letterboxed. The drawback is that English subtitles suck; for one, liberally interspersing the dialogue with@h f**kh when the characters are saying nothing of the sort.

I liked this film. It's a slow moving piece that grows on you. I agree that the dialogue could have been better (or maybe it's just the translation), but I thought it was a good cross between the hypnotic style of Kurosawa and an old-fashioned gangster flick. One of the reviewers said that it was just a bunch of guys waiting around. Well... that's partly true, but I found there to be poetry in the silence - much like in "The Scent of Green Papaya". We've been so brainwashed by Hollywood films that we get "bored" when nothing is said or done. This is not an action movie. It's a meditation on time.

I see it this way... You may walk out of a bloodfest happy to have seen so many die, but... is the movie going to stay with you? It's the quiet ones that haunt you. It's the ... moments that flash in your memory - watching the waves crash against the shore as the men play russian roulette... the full moon that hangs in the sky, waiting along with them. It's in the bonding that takes place. The last few minutes of the film will stay with me.

I liked this..

I love Fireworks (Hana-Bi), Kids Return, Kikujiro - basically almost all Kitano's work. But I really believe Sonatine is the best film he ever wrote - directed - and acted. As a second film he directed, there were some very rough parts, but the film itself has such a strong power and it shows no fear. I was rather disappointed on his recent work "Brother" as I was hoping that film to be more like "Sonatine." I find new discovery everytime I see this film. His treatment of comedy and violence is so powerful and extreme, which comes from his background as a stand-up comedian. I really wish the DVD version will soon be released. Most his other works are available on DVD and I was wondering why not this one.

I've seen many, perhaps most, of Kitano's films and enjoyed this one the most. The film works rhythmically and musically better than Firworks (hanabi) and Boiling Point (3-4 x 10gatsu), and addresses the same themes (the isolation, futility and entrapments of yakuza life and violence, the beauty of the ocean, loyalty, revenge, desperation, etc.) much more succinctly and poignantly. Particularly the second half of the film, that takes place by the ocean, is full of bittersweet humor and a beautiful simplicity, which are a nice contrast to the violence of the yakuza underworld. This film also manages to escape the nauseating sentimentality of Kikujiro, yet remain true to its poetic heart.

Sonatine can get quite a few prizes just for the music. Even the silence matches the music. The photography is classical and the canvases are poetic. Sometimes you forget that you are watching a gang war movie rather you will feel that you are watching an extremely romantic movie. Takeshi Kitano is just an amazing actor. Cinematography and frame design is comparable Kurosawa.

Takeshi Kitano is a renegade gang leader who is trying to save his own life from his mob boss. Most of the movie is in a location where he is hiding along with 4 of his cohorts.

If you do not understand Japanese then you will miss out since it is very difficult to do correct translation of Japanese words. You get a translation but you do not get the connotations.

As a whole this is a highly exciting movie. I will not recommend

it for kids since it has too much blood and violence.

This is one of my favorite movies because it does everything it attempts to do very, very well. As an action movie, it's fast-paced, tough and suspenseful. As a drama it's moving and thought-provoking. And, as cinema, it's well-crafted, with some really brilliant visuals. In these respects, although totally different in style, content and, of course, subject matter, it's in the tradition of Seven Samurai and other Kurosawa warrior movies. Beat Takeshi is also one of the coolest movie stars in the world. Much better on the big screen, but as it's almost impossible to find even in big city art house theaters, the video will have to do.

First I want to point out , to the negative reviewers , .. that foreign film is not a genre...

I don;t understand when people say , "I rent foreign films 4 days a week , and this one's the worst"

This is a crime film , and kitano's one of the best at the yakuza genre...

First , you have to be familiar with the yakuza culture to understand the characters , ....

Yes , they don;t care if they live or die , I think the whole freaking point of the movie was that...

So , if you like crime , and yakuza films , this one's a great one , ... not kitano's best , but , it's still great...

If you just like to watch foreign films because you think they have something that hollywood films don;t , or just because you want to look cool , I do not recomend this...

you will not get this film , ...

Sonatine is nothing short of how genre films can be handled creatively to reveal new truths. Beat Takeshi sets his gang of tough yakuza (Japanese for gangsters) in a beach resort, a gang of men just waiting for the inevitable from their boss who is thinking about "good riddance" back in Tokyo. A very funny and at times beautiful and lyrical film. Be prepared for the deadpan delivery of violence, a nonchalance that doesn't mean "cool" as American film violence exercises it.