Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"When you're scared all the time, you almost wish you were dead."This film is absolutely incredible. Breathtaking, thoughtful, fun, violent, intriguing, artistic... I could go on. It's about a group of Yakzua who go to Okinawa and end up hiding out in a cabin by the beach. While the film starts off in a very typical Yakzua film way, it becomes a lot more than that.First, let me say that Kitano does a great job here. He wrote, directed, edited and starred in this film, and he does a great job at it all. The cinematography is beautiful, and it really makes this a pretty film. It really is in need of a bluray release, but sadly right now there isn't one. Kitano puts a lot of color into this film, using things like brightly colored shirts or the beautiful scenery or a bright blue car. The film starts looking very gritty and dull when they're in Tokyo, much like any Yakuza film, but as they go to Okinawa, it becomes much more rich in color, which is very interesting to see. You really get to soak in the beaches and waters of Okinawa, which are absolutely beautiful and make you wish you were there. The soundtrack plays a huge part in this film too. Joe Hisaishi does the score, and he has done other scores for Kitano films like Kikujiro and even studio Gibli films. His score gives the film varying moods, which range from mysterious and brooding to fun and whimsical, which fits the film well seeing as it has a little bit of all of these things. The movies starts as a violent and gritty Yakuza film, but about 30 minutes into it when they go to the beach to hide out, the film becomes almost like a kids movie (Reminiscent of Kikujiro, another Kitano film that has a more kid friendly vibe to it). They goof around and have fun, which really makes you like these characters. You feel like you know what these characters are like and they feel real. Everyone in the cast does a good job, especially Kitano. This is a movie that really makes you think as the credits roll. It gives you enough to understand what Kitano is trying to say, but also leaves a few things up to the viewer to decide, and I really like that. I don't want a film to give me everything, but at the same time, I don't want to be 100% confused. This movie really pulls that off.I highly recommend this to anyone. Fans of Japanese films, fans of Yakuza movies, fans of art house films, just fans of film in general. It's a masterpiece that is very underrated, and absolutely needs to be seen by more people.

Takeshi Kitano writes and directs his gangster films like Ernst Hemingway wrote his prose. "Sonatine" is a lean, mean movie about yakuza gunsels roughing it in Okinawa on a mission to settle a dispute. There is a lot of violence, but it's not the kind that makes you want to go out and shoot somebody. The difference between an action shoot'em up and Kitano's "Sonatine" is that everything is matter of fact, ordinary in a way that makes everything seem doubly realistic. These gangsters don't pose and shoot; they shoot. If Sergio Leone perpetuated the 'looks can kill' stare, then Kitano has created the 'look that wonders.' These tight-lipped tough guys say more with their glassy-eyed stares than they would if they were exchanging papers of meaningless dialogue. You have to use your imagination with "Sonatine" and Kitano forces you with gunfights where you see muzzle flashes in windows or on faces like a artsy light show. Some people will complain that the 94-minute melodrama is humdrum, but it is far from boring. If there were ever a movie about violence that shows how meaningless a life of violence is, "Sonatine" qualifies for that honor. Kitano delivers another hypnotic performance.

"Wow." All I could think of after this was over. Few movies have ever made my jaw drop, yet this is such a powerful, haunting, unbelievable masterpiece of a film. I can't even put it in to words. The whole thing is perfectly acted and directed, with minimal, hypnotic, haunting music and quick bursts of ultraviolence. This is not your typical action film at all; most of the running length of this film isn't spent with people shooting guns, it's spent with people playing around on the beach. Also, no character ever seems to really show emotion. Very deadpan. It may seem slow and awkward to most people upon their first watch, but give it a chance. It blew me away...

I've seen and admired his later movies, including Hana Bi and Dolls, but i wasn't quite sure what to expect when i got the DVD version of this. As you expect with Takeshi Kitano, its both mesmerizing and infuriating, always teetering on a tightrope with brilliance on one side and hopeless pretentiousness on the other.Its so difficult to penetrate a movie like this - it is slow, but carefully paced, with a peculiar editing pattern. Scenes are held for a few seconds more than most directors would hold, catching characters staring blankly at the aftermath of an action. Events occur with little or no warning or apparent reason. Characters are mostly blanks - either husks of men, or just empty psychopaths, its hard to say. The climax is shown obliquely, from a distance, we can only infer what is happening later.So, to put it mildly, this is not your average gangster movie. In some ways, it has suffered with the passage of time - we are now spoiled with such complex portrayals of gangsters such as in the Sopranos, we find it hard to accept Kitano's almost noble portrayal of what are in reality brutal, selfish sociopaths. Perhaps its the Japanese concept of people being pulled along by the tides of life, rather than actors in our own destinies that is the real theme of this and his other movies. But is this the excuse for the hero being a callous killer? We find ourselves sympathizing with his increasingly rotten soul, rather than empathizing with his victims.Love him or hate him, Kitano is one of the most interesting film makers in the world today, and Sonatine is one of his best - just expect to be scratching your head in puzzlement at the end.