Sonatine: Viewer Comments

"Sonatine" is an excellent early 90's Yakuza film starring Takeshi Kitano. Kitano also serves as the script writer, director, and editor. "Sonatine" is the third film Kitano directed, and his creativity is on display as he tackles a genre that really fascinates him. "Sonatine" is a very stylish gangster film that effectively combines brutal violence and comedic moments. The action scenes are very random and limited, giving them more of a shock value than just gratuitous violence. In my opinion, it's the brutal but meaningful killings that spawned the "Sonatine"/"Goodfellas" comparison. In my mind, "Sonatine" is not in the same league as "Goodfellas" in any aspect, but is still a very solid film.

The only real issue I had with "Sonatine was the middle of the film, when the gangsters were hiding out on the beach. This was where most of the humorous moments occurred but seemed to drag on forever, causing me to stir a bit. This scene led to the final battle, which was a bit of a disappointment after I was itching for violence after all the extended scenes of male bonding, male and female bonding, and yakuza members playing childish games.

"Sonatine" is an entertaining and noteworthy yakuza film that is highly recommended.