Sonatine

Dir: Takeshi Kitano

1993

*****

Takeshi Kitano's approach to film making is always very simple but deeply effective. Actors generally get one take, if they mess up their lines he then films the bad of their head instead. It is a no nonsense approach and it has worked for him (and audiences) for a very long time. Kitano, or 'Beat' Takeshi as he is also known, has had a varied career but directing came as something of a mistake. He was set to star in 1989's Violent Cop only but after the original director stepped down due to other commitments, Kateshi relished the opportunity and has been making brilliant films ever since, 1993's Sonatine being a pivotal point in his career. His previous two films since Violent Cop (Boiling Point and A scene by the Sea) did okay at the Japanese box office but Sonatine failed. However, western audiences loved it and it's safe to say that Kitano's schizophrenic career became even more schizophrenic because of it. Kitano explores very similar themes in all of his films, although much like a painter, he has gone through very different phases through the years but there are certain elements that are constant. Firstly, there is the humour. His humour. Sometimes the humour is close to the mark and Japanese audiences much prefer his TV and stand-up comedy than that seen in his films but there are plenty of us around the world who love it. Second is the violence. Not many directors can depict such brutal and realistic violence in such a simple and beautiful way. The violence is represented most of the time through the Yakuza and gangsters in general. It's a role he's extremely convincing at portraying, a crime boss or one of his henchmen being quite an interesting vehicle or avatar to explore human emotion through. Then there are the games he plays which is very much linked to everything else in the film. The games can be part of a thrilling gangster plot or quite literally a group of people playing games. Takeshi Kitano clearly loves his funny games, the cult TV game show Takeshi's Castle being one of his babies. Lastly, there is the beach. Kitano identifies the beach as very important place for him as it represents where live begins and where life ends, so he feels it important to visit it regularly at various points in one life, and he does in every other of his films. In Sonatine we see Kitano visit all four of these key elements, understand (and love) Sonatine and you'll enjoy every single one of his subsequent films. Sonatine's popularity was a key moment for Kitano, he pretty much kills his alter-ego in his next film because of it and has stated that the near-fatal scooter accident he had in 1994 was a sub-conscious suicide attempt that effected his life and career dramatically. Kitano is two people who are constantly at war with each other, he found a way for them to co-exist in the brilliant Takeshis' but before then and before his reawakening (Hana-bi) Sonatine is him in his purest point and what made him what he is today. It's brutal, funny, violent and hauntingly beautiful. There is no film maker like Takeshi and there is no other masterpiece like Sonatine. It's the result of a spontaneous thinker and a master storyteller.