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Sonatine

Play trailer Poster for Sonatine R 1998 1h 34m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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93% Tomatometer 27 Reviews 89% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A yakuza officer (Beat Takeshi) gets more than he bargained for while trying to defuse a gang war in Okinawa.

Critics Reviews

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Patrick Z. McGavin Chicago Reader 06/16/2022
At a time when action movies typically hand us a canned experience, Kitano pictures carry a charge of originality. Go to Full Review
Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times 02/14/2001
4/5
Sleek, punchy and altogether captivating. Go to Full Review
Stephen Holden New York Times 01/01/2000
4/5
Kitano's haunting elegy to the gangster way of life. Go to Full Review
David Parkinson Radio Times 09/06/2024
5/5
This violent, gang-war thriller is a stunning piece of film-making. Go to Full Review
David Pountain Vague Visages 12/12/2023
From its hypnotic style to its pessimistic plot and languid pacing, Sonatine is a mesmerizing manifestation of the troubling logic of Murakawa's final decision. Go to Full Review
Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com 10/17/2011
A
[VIDEO] "Sonatine" is a lyrical picture of Japan's poker face toward the outrageous violence of its mob culture. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Joy b @9mr_0 4d فلم جميل و قصة جيدة السرد كان متزن مع محاولة المخرج لعزل العاطفة و الشعور بالممثلين . الممثلين كان ادائهم جيد و البطل حظورة طاغي و مسيطر . تطور الشخصيات كان جيد لا توجد مبالغة درامية و تمثيل اوفر طول الفلم. التصوير كان هادىء و يعطيك شعور البرد . الموسيقى كانت جيدة رغم اول نص ساعة من الفلم كانت هادىء جدا. See more Lee B Mar 21 Gobsmacking.... amazingly itself See more DanTheMan 2 01/22/2024 From its hypnotic style to its pessimistic plot, Sonatine is a mesmerizing manifestation of Takeshi Kitano's continued revitalisation of the yakuza movie. It is a largely peaceful, contemplative work, punctuated by moments of extreme violence all delivered with purpose balancing the fine line between gorgeously dreamy and grim reality. Kitano's haunting elegy to the gangster way of life, he spends the film exposing the gangster ideal as the myth, of little boys who forget to grow up, doing so with incredible flourishes of style, playfulness and jarring outbursts of his trademark humour. Having only written four scenes, the vast majority of the film was largely spontaneous, often Kitano finding his feet in the moment at hand. Sonatine sees the bleak suicidal tendencies of Kitano's mind coming right to the forefront, especially since he suffered partial facial paralysis after a motorscooter accident not long after this film's release. One he has often mentioned was an unconscious suicide attempt, this alone lends a massive amount of weight to the Russian Roulette sequences, giving Sonatine so much more emotional levity to its already unconventional narrative. With the addition of another stunning musical score by Joe Hisaishi, Sonatine rewards those with patience, offering up plenty of existential dread among its exceptional beauty. See more david b 03/28/2023 Beat Takeshi's humour is well placed here between the dark and the light and between openness and humanity and the awfulness of the subject matter ie. death. Later in Hana BI he taps into the same sensibilities on occasion but its as a more playful approach here than later in films like Battle Royale where his satire is far more literal and in your face. I feel like Tarantino must have loved this as I see reflections from some of his films that come from this attitude and similar sense of humour. If you've seen quite a few 'by the numbers' films in this genre then this is like a breath of fresh air (and some bullets). See more 06/27/2021 Haunting off-beat gangster film. Kitano at his absolute best. See more Sean L 02/17/2021 Given the opening chapter's focus on internal Yakuza machinations and street-tough theatrics, it would be easy to reflexively label Sonatine as just another dose of dirty criminal intrigue. But then, when an inauspicious job goes sideways and the little crew of posh mobsters and crass underlings are forced into hiding, it takes a hard left and becomes something entirely different. Whiling the days and weeks away in an abandoned beach house, we explore the duality of these lives and soften their outer veneer. In that sense, the internet-famous cover photo of writer/star/director Takeshi Kitano grinning broadly while holding a gun to his head is a precise depiction of the film's themes. These gangland thugs might be all business when they're intimidating store owners or trading bullets with a rival gang (nary an eyelash is batted when Kitano and company dunk a victim for too long and accidentally drown him), but on their down time, they need to cut loose, have a few laughs and make human connections, too. The really interesting points are where those two opposite modes meet, a jolting transformation when light amusement slams into stone-serious reality and all the easy smiles melt. There's always a momentary hesitation where we can't be certain which way the scales will tip, and that's dangerously exciting. Those key moments take time to develop, though, which leads the plot to really sag in the middle. Kitano performs very well as the central figure, a stark dichotomy of incompatible moods, but he can't be on-screen at all times and isn't always surrounded by the best supporting talent. A strong thematic concept, one which evidently developed live in the field as the script was extremely bare bones, but not especially well-executed. Loaded with promising ideas, much of Sonatine's ephemeral potential depends upon what you, the viewer, are willing to bring to the table. See more Read all reviews
Sonatine

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Movie Info

Synopsis A yakuza officer (Beat Takeshi) gets more than he bargained for while trying to defuse a gang war in Okinawa.
Director
Takeshi Kitano
Producer
Masayuki Mori, Hisao Nabeshima, Takio Yoshida
Screenwriter
Takeshi Kitano
Distributor
Miramax Films, Miramax Home Entertainment [us]
Production Co
Bandai Visual Co. Ltd., Shochiku
Rating
R
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 10, 1998, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 21, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$48.0K
Runtime
1h 34m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby