Sonatine

Infobox Film
name = Sonatine


caption = original poster
director = Takeshi Kitano
producer = Masayuki Mori
Hisao Nabeshima
Ritta Saito
writer = Takeshi Kitano
starring = Beat Takeshi
Aya Kokumai
Tetsu Watanabe
music = Joe Hisaishi
cinematography = Katsumi Yanagishima
editing = Takeshi Kitano
distributor = flagicon|Japan Shouchiku Daichii Kougyo
flagicon|USA Miramax Films
released = flagicon|Japan September 10, 1993
flagicon|France May 3, 1995
flagicon|USA April 10 1998
runtime = 94 min
country = Japan
language = Japanese
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:154181
imdb_id = 0108188

nihongo|"Sonatine"|ソナチネ|"Sonachine" is a 1993 Japanese film written, directed, edited by, and starring Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. It won numerous awards and became one of Kitano's most successful and praised films, garnering him a sizable international fan base.

Plot synopsis

Kitano plays Murakawa, a Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life. Along with a few of his henchmen, he is sent by his boss to Okinawa to help end a gang war, supposedly to mediate between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, Murakawa's headquarters are bombed and he and his gang are ambushed in a bar.

Fleeing to the seaside, they find a remote beach house and decide to wait for the trouble to blow over. Whilst spending time at the beach, the violence of the opening act is replaced by childish games and pranks and the group begin to enjoy themselves, setting traps in the sand for one another and playing with cardboard Sumo wrestlers. However, the men's play inevitably has a violent undertone. After more play-fighting, Murakawa pulls out his revolver and the gang practice shooting at a beer can, until Murakawa turns it into a game of Russian roulette. Putting the seemingly loaded gun to his head, he pulls the trigger on the last chamber. The chamber is revealed to be empty and Murakawa is unharmed.

He later dreams of the Russian roulette game, although in his dream, the revolver is loaded and he is killed. When he wakes up, he walks down to the shore. He sees a car pull up, and a man drags a woman into the sand and proceeds to attempt to rape her. Murakawa stoically watches for a while and then walks past them toward the beach house. When the man realises Murakawa has been there the whole time and shouts at him, Murakawa headbutts him. When the man gets up, he pulls out a knife and issues a threat, which is met with Murakawa shooting him dead.

The woman joins Murakawa and the gang at the beach house, and joins in the fun.Later, a gunman wearing a straw hat is seen. The gunman kills several people including one of Murakawa's men, in the middle of a Frisbee match. Vengeance draws Murakawa back into the gangster world and as he leaves, the woman promises to wait for him. When the surviving men decide to kidnap a member from the rival gang and assassinate him, Murakawa's men, along with the rival gang and the man in the straw hat are all killed but Murakawa and his kidnapped victim. On another beach, Murakawa beats his target and locks him inside a car, destroying it.

Until evening falls, Murakawa removes a M16 out of the pink bag seen earlier in the movie, and storms alone into a convention full of rival Yakuza members responsible for the death of Murakawa's men. He later ends up shooting all down. But while Murakawa is gunning down the rival gang, an Okinawan, who eventually becomes the sole survivor, flees in horror after watching flashes made by the machine gun. He is never seen again.

Eventually, while the woman continues to wait for him, Murakawa stops the car near the beach, and commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. The scene then switches to the car and the horizon and slowly fades.

Fukasuku's influence

It is also notable that "Sonatine" shares many thematic qualities with Kitano's 1997 later film, "Hana-bi", which is considered by many to be his masterpiece, since it earned him a Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival.

"Sonatine" was highly inspired by, and explicitly refers to, Kinji Fukasaku's 1971 "Sympathy for the Underdog", starring Koji Tsuruta. Plot, location and characters are similar in both movies, even the Okinawan theme song featured in Fukasaku's "Sympathy for the Underdog" appears in "Sonatine". Since Takeshi Kitano started directing, on "Violent Cop", thanks to Kinji Fukasaku's withdrawal, some believes that "Sonatine" is an homage to Fukasaku, one of Kitano's masters along with Akira Kurosawa.

Local and international reception

It should be noted that the film's theatrical release in Japan was a commercial failure as Kitano was only perceived as a highly popular gagman, and the audience was not prepared, nor capable, to accept him as a credible gangster noir character. However with Kitano not yet famous abroad, the movie would later benefit of this different situation especially in the European market.

"Sonatine" was showcased in a few small theaters in France where it received lukewarm acclaim from specialized professionals. French publisher and notorious movie-goer, Jean-Pierre Dionnet (Canal +/Studio Canal), reported in an interview, that someone convinced Alain Delon to watch "Sonatine" arguing that Kitano was a fan of "Le Samouraï". Delon was seriously taken aback, and talking about Kitano's acting, said "what's THAT? [...] , this is not an actor [...] , he only got three facial expressions and he almost doesn't talk on top of this". Most professionals around Dionnet had the same reject reaction, but the French publisher was both struck and puzzled by this new genre. He contacted the Japanese distributor in order to buy the license for the exploitation of "Sonatine", but his request was strongly rejected. Dionnet had to insist during several months to finally discover that the Shochiku didn't want to release Sonatine abroad, claiming the movie was "too Japanese" and would not be accepted, nor understood, by western audiences. Eventually Dionnet learned that the distributor didn't want to release the license because of its commercial failure in Japan. Dionnet had an agreement with the Shouchiku arguing that the French audience didn't know Kitano's career and would accept his violent character more easily. He bought "Sonatine" and three additional subtitled movies, "Violent Cop", "Boiling Point" and the latest, "Kids Return", all of which performed poorly in Japan ("A Scene at the Sea" and "Getting Any?" were not licensed). In 1995, "Sonatine" entered the 13th Festival du Film Policier de Cognac (Thriller Film Festival of Cognac) in France, where it was critically acclaimed, and lastly, "Sonatine", followed by the three other movies were broadcasted on the French channel Canal+ few months later. [Jean-Pierre Dionnet's interview on the "Sonatine" DVD edition, published in Jean-Pierre Dionnet's "Asian Classics" collection (DesFilms/Studio Canal), France, 2001 (EDV 384)] Then a couple of years later on the Franco-German public channel Arte. A video release followed, including a DVD edition available in Dionnet's collection "Asian Classics".

In 1997, "Hana-bi" was premiered in Italy, at the Venice Film Festival, where it earned Kitano the first prize, known as the Golden Lion award. The critical success of the movie, led a part of the Japanese audience to reconsider him as a true, important, filmmaker and earn the attention of North American publishers.

As soon as 1995, Takeshi Kitano (credited as "Takeshi") played the role of a yakuza in American director Robert Longo's SF thriller, "Johnny Mnemonic". Although in North America "Sonatine" was released in theaters in April 1998 and, another Kinji Fukasaku enthusiast, Quentin Tarantino, released a subtitled video edition in 2000 as part of his "Rolling Thunder Pictures" collection. The same year, Kitano was convinced by his producer to go in the United States where he filmed his first (and last) movie outside Japan. "Brother" was shot in Los Angeles with an American crew and local actors including Omar Epps. In an interview, Kitano self-admitted he was not fully satisfied with the final result of "Brother" and that he regretted his "Hollywood" adventure which was supposed to bring him a broader audience with a higher exposure. Kitano confessed he had no intention of shooting outside Japan anymore. [Takeshi Kitano interview on the "Brother" DVD edition, published by TF1 Vidéo, France, 2001 (EDV 1035)]

Notes

External links

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* " [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sonatine/ Sonatine] " at Rotten Tomatoes