Sonatine is one of Takeshi Kitano's earlier films only recently released in the U.S. courtesy of Quentin Tarantino (who else?). I found it to be a very unique and surprising take on the Yakuza film.

The premise of Sonatine is relatively simple. A couple of Yakuza, led by Kitano (once again assuming his Beat Takeshi title) as a gangster thinking about leaving the life, are sent to the island of Okinawa on a peace keeping mission. The majority of the film chronicles their exploits when there.

Sonatine is a film that really caught me off guard. It starts out like a regular Yakuza flick but turns out to be much more of a feel good movie. Most of the film is taken up by Yakuza doing what they do during downtime and actually proves to be quite amusing. The dialogue contains a lot of Kitano's signature dry humor and one liners that can easily bring a smile to one's face. There's also a good deal of situational humor featuring Yakuza fooling around, doing things such as shooting cans off each other's heads and having firework wars. An apparent Russian Roulette scene is particularly amusing but shocking as well.

Sonatine is a film in the crime genre, however, so naturally things get a little nasty from time to time. The action scenes are very well done and feel strongly like old school gangster classics such as the Godfather, Scarface, and Goodfellas. The violence is often abrupt and unexpected, bringing a strong sense of realism to it. The final scene of the film is particularly shocking and even when the film shifts back into the crime genre, it's still very unexpected. Though the film is essentially very light and comedic, the gangster theme remains prominant.

All in all, an excellent film. A very unique crime film with a lot of innovations however very accesible and entertaining. Recommended to anyone who enjoys films of the crime and action genres.

This is fabulous.

It has one of my favorite crane shots of all time (for those who have seen it, it's the one when Kitano gets out of the car after killing everyone in it), and is just generally beautifully shot and excellently made.

I 'flixed this purely based on your recommendation.  

-Don

Hmm...

What oh what did Donny do?  Bought or rented or burnt it...ooh!

Net Flix.  I added it to my Net Flix cue. (Net Flix - you pay money every month.  Every month they send you three DVDs.  You watch them and return them.  They send more.  The greatest invention since the vasectomy and cellophane  tape.)  I read about a movie that interests me and I add it to my que.  Fat kid and skinny kid loved the 1930's King Kong even tho it was, "black and white!".  I alternate my que between one for me, one for the wife and one for the kids.  In theory, we should have one DVD in the house that won't warp the brats.

Don