Review of Sonatine (1993) by Steven (Mogi) . — 22 Feb 2012

Sonatine was a wonderful crime drama. Takeshi Kitano does wonderfully well in this atmosphere. His character Murakawa is tired of the Yakuza life and wishes he could retire. His boss has other plans, sending Murakawa to handle a truce between their gang and another.

Takeshi is a good director as the night scenes were well lit. He also used distances to his advantage. I felt trying to show how Murakawa had grown weary of the gang life. There were a couple of scenes that could have been shortened; as they seemed to drag for just a little too long. The story was excellent. It was filled with comedy, drama, and action. Also as the movie goes on the atmosphere changes to keep you unsure of what could happen next. I went from tense to relaxed; laughing to shocked.

As you take the journey with him, you begin to see his men and himself get closer. They were almost family like (yes, I know), he even shows that he could be good deep down. There was sumo scene that became somewhat surreal, but was at the same time slightly humorous. When the ending came though, I was touched and shocked. It didn't end they way I expected at all. So if your every on netflix or walking around a movie store and see this film...rent it. The only real downside is it's foreign so you might end up reading some subtitles; but it is so worth it.