Sonatine (1993 film)
Sonatine | |
---|---|
Directed by | Takeshi Kitano |
Written by | Takeshi Kitano |
Produced by | Masayuki Mori Hisao Nabeshima Ritta Saito |
Starring | Takeshi Kitano |
Cinematography | Katsumi Yanagishima |
Edited by | Takeshi Kitano |
Music by | Joe Hisaishi |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Shochiku |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Box office | $58,834[1] |
Sonatine (Japanese: ソナチネ, Hepburn: Sonachine) is a 1993 Japanese yakuza film directed, written and edited by Takeshi Kitano, who also stars in the film. It won numerous awards and became one of Kitano's most successful and praised films, garnering him a sizable international fan base.
Plot
Murakawa, a
Fleeing to the seaside, the survivors take refuge in a remote beach house belonging to a brother of one of the Nakamatsu members and decide to wait for the trouble to blow over. Whilst spending time at the beach, the group engages in childish games and pranks and begin to enjoy themselves. However, the games frequently have a violent undertone. When two of his men alternate shooting at a beer can on each other's head, Murakawa turns it into a game of Russian roulette. Putting the gun to his head, he pulls the trigger on the last chamber, which is only then revealed to be empty.
Murakawa later dreams of the Russian roulette game, although in his dream, the revolver is loaded and he dies. When he wakes up, he walks down to the shore and witnesses a man attempt to rape a woman. Murakawa shoots the man, but to his companions he claims the woman shot him. She then joins Murakawa and the gang at the beach house and comes frequently to visit, spending time with Murakawa. Later, an assassin, disguised as a fisherman, kills the boss of the Nakamatsu clan and one of Murakawa's men. Learning that Takahashi is arriving in Okinawa, Murakawa and two of his surviving men visit his hotel.
Unable to find him at first, they unexpectedly run into Takahashi and the assassin in the elevator, which results in a shootout, killing the assassin and Murakawa's men. Murakawa learns from interrogating Takahashi that their boss had intended all along to partner with the Anan clan and had sent Murakawa on a suicide mission to take over his turf. He also learns that the boss will be meeting with the Anan that night in a hotel. Takahashi is killed and Murakawa sets off with the only survivor of the group, a member of the Nakamatsu clan, who helps him by rigging the electricity in the hotel to go off at a certain time. Murakawa tells the woman that he might come back.
Later that night, Murakawa goes into the hotel and slaughters both clans with an assault rifle. The next morning, while the woman continues to wait for him, Murakawa is dropped off nearby. He gets into the woman's car alone and commits suicide by shooting himself in the head.
Cast
- Takeshi Kitano as Murakawa, an aging mid-level yakuza.
- Aya Kokumai as Miyuki, an Okinawa rape victim.
- Tetsu Watanabe as Uechi, the head of the Nakamatsu gang who drives the group's bus.
- Masanobu Katsumura as Ryōji, a young coworker of Uechi who befriends Ken.
- Susumu Terajima as Ken, the gangly long-time lieutenant of Murakawa.
- Ren Ōsugias Katagiri, a businessman under Murakawa.
- Tonbo Zushi as Kitajima, Murakawa's boss.
- Ken'ichi Yajimaas Takahashi, the lieutenant of Kitajima.
- Eiji Minakata as The hit man, working for Takahashi and Kitajima.
Production
The film was conceived with four basic scenes; yakuza having to go to Okinawa, yakuza arriving in Okinawa, the machine-gun shootout, and the main character shooting himself in the head. Kitano said his shooting technique is spontaneous in that he allowed the film to fill in the space between these four scenes itself.[2]
The title Sonatine comes from the musical term
The film's poster is of a Napoleon fish being pierced with a spear. Kitano said this type of fish used to be very common in the oceans south of Japan, but has been decreasing. He used the image simply because the contrast of the "beautifully shaped" fish being speared seemed striking to him.[3]
Soundtrack
Sonatine | |
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Toshiba EMI |
The soundtrack to Sonatine was composed by
- "Sonatine I (Act of Violence)"
- "Light and Darkness"
- "Play on the Sands"
- "Rain After That"
- "On the Fullmoon of Mystery"
- "Into a Trance"
- "Sonatine II (In the Beginning)"
- "Magic Mushroom"
- "Eye Witness"
- "Runaway Trip"
- "Moebius Band"
- "Die Out of Memories"
- "See You..."
- "Sonatine III (Be Over)"
Reception
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 92% of 25 professional critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10.[7] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generaly favourable reviews".[8]
Sonatine was screened in the
As soon as 1995, Takeshi Kitano played the role of a yakuza in American director Robert Longo's SF thriller, Johnny Mnemonic. In North America Sonatine was released in theaters in April 1998 and 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) film outside Japan. Brother was shot in Los Angeles with an American crew and local actors including Omar Epps. In an interview, Kitano 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 any more.[16]
Awards
Sonatine won the Cariddi D'oro award for Best Film at the 1993
References
- ^ "Sonatine (1995) - JPBox-Office".
- ^ "The Genesis of Sonatine". Zatoichi/Sonatine (DVD). Miramax. 2004.
- ^ a b "What is Sonatine?". Zatoichi/Sonatine (DVD). Miramax. 2004.
- ISBN 9781838716639.
- ^ a b 第17回日本アカデミー賞優秀作品 (in Japanese). Japan Academy Prize. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ^ Sonatine- Soundtrack details. SoundtrackCollector.com. Retrieved on 2014-05-12.
- ^ "Sonatine (1993)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ^ https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sonatine?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c
- ^ "Sonatine (1993)". rogerebert.com. 1998-04-17. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ^ "DVD review: Sonatine". The Guardian. 2009-05-29. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ^ "The New Cult Canon: Sonatine". The A.V. Club. 2008-08-13. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- Complex. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
- ^ "10 great Japanese gangster movies". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Sonatine". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
- Studio Canal), France, 2001 (EDV 384)
- ^ Takeshi Kitano interview on the Brother DVD edition, published by TF1 Vidéo, France, 2001 (EDV 1035)
- ^ "Director - Takeshi Kitano". Office Kitano. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
- ^ "第3回日本映画プロフェッショナル大賞" (in Japanese). Japanese Professional Movie Awards. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
- ^ "Festival du Film Policier de Cognac 1995" (in French). festivalcognac.chez.com. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
External links
- Sonatine at IMDb
- Sonatine at AllMovie
- Sonatine at Rotten Tomatoes