Sonatine – Review

Though not finding much success in his homeland, the comedian turned director Takeshi Kitano exploded onto the international scene with his fourth feature Sonatine. A Yakuza film that breaks all the typical trappings of the genre and established the framework for his style and his masterpiece to come, Hana-bi (Fireworks). From that point on, the Japanese warmed up to his films and Kitano reached a wider audience with his wide range of pictures, especially after Hana-bi won the Golden Lion at Venice.

Kitano portrays Murakawa, a successful Yakuza officer who has become sick of the Yakuza life, so much so that he’s considering retirement. He’s not pleased when he is asked to lead a team to help defuse a gang war in Okinawa but goes with it anyways when he is assured it will be an easy job. It proves to be much more complicated and he soon finds himself in the middle of a bloody conflict. Fearing that he may have been set up, Murakawa withdraws to a nearby coastal town. The film actually has quite a few plot similarities to Kinji Fukasaku’s Sympathy for the Underdog and is regarded as somewhat of a tribute to Kinji (who was the original director attached to Kitano’s debut film, Violent Cop).

For those unfamiliar with Kitano’s body of work as a director, this is a rather good place to start. It’s another great example of his trademark style, maintaining a brilliant balance of deadpan comedy, romantic lyricism and sudden violence. Kitano transcends Yakuza/Gangster pictures here by avoiding the usual cliched trappings found in these genres. Dialogue doesn’t drown in its own stupidity or self-important ramblings, even violence doesn’t exist just for the sake of bloodletting. You won’t get a long, thrilling action sequence in a Kitano film, he doesn’t care for the usual aesthetic kicks you’d find in the genre. Even the finale refuses to show the gun play that is taking place in any significant detail.

In most Yakuza films this retreat would lead to a planning stage where the gang would figure out a way to unleash their vengeance and set things right. Kitano has different intentions. He’s much more interested in letting these characters try and escape from that world of crime and they instead become akin to children. They constantly play games and ignore their Yakuza problems and duties. It becomes this oddly idyllic summer vacation, Murakawa even finds himself a young summer love. It is through this change of tradition that Kitano demonstrates a moment in a man’s life where he must decide what he should do, his own personal sonatine.

Takeshi Kitano’s impact on the Yakuza film with this film was incredible, to say the least. The genre was long since considered dead and most of its practitioners were just simply repeating the formula of the 70′s with little originality. Kitano injected new life and practically single handedly revived the genre for a new age. The comedian Kitano had finally been reborn as an auteur, one of cinemas greats.