Sonatine

Gav99

I've been watching alot of Asian movies recently and Takeshi Kitano is one of the Directors I've been trying to get into. Zatoichi was imo the best movie of the year (or was it last year) and after watching it in the cinema I was hungry for more of the same.

I know there are Kitano fans on here and it may have been on this site that I heard about some of his other movies. The 2nd of his movies that I saw was Boiling Point and I was very dissapointed. I was hoping for some decent action scenes or even a bit of black comedy but found none of the above. Some of the story didn't even make sense!

Last night I watched Sonatine, and although better than Boiling Point, was again a let down. The story seemed like it had been edited badly and some of the scene's made no sense. The ending was very abrupt (not nessesarily a bad thing) and made no sense either.

I know Kitano is supposed to be an "arty" director but surely alot of the story and plot are getting lost in the subtitle tranlations. Anyone else think this is the case?

I still love the guy as an actor but some of the movies he's made have been a let down. I won't write him off yet though becuase I have a copy of Hana Bi at home and I'm sure I'm gonna like it - although I said the same thing about Sonatine!

One more thing - after watching Old Boy I decided to rent Shiri (another Korean movie). For anyone who's thinking of doing this, I would say don't waste your money. Bloody awful film that Jean Claude Van Damme would not have looked out of place in.

Karl Hungus

Boiling Point is fairly naff alright, so I don't blame you, but Sonatine is a fantastic film. It is indeed quite confusing, but give it another shot before you make up your mind altogether. Hana-bi is just an absolute masterpeice altogether, and although it's considerably more straight farward than Sonatine, it's a breath-taking film altogether. It's also a magnificent acting preformance on Kitano's part aswell, probably his best film in my opinion.

The thing about Kitano is than none of his films are entirely alike at all, so perhaps the fact that you were "Hungry for more of the same" after seeing Zatoichi is the defining point. I'm afraid I couldn't possibly tell you what would be remotely similar.

And yeah, I got the notion that Shiri wouldn't be my cup of coffee. But speaking about Korean films, and more specifically Oldboy, have you checked out director Chan Wook Park's previous film Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance? Definetly one to see, as anyone here will tell you.

Save The Green Planet is an absolutely fantastic film that I have to plug here too, and if you'd be in the mood for a bit of an epic, you can't go wrong with Musa - The Warrior.

nadir

I thought sonatine was great too. Hanabi , Dolls and zatoichi are my top 3 though.

Chad ghostal

really liked boiling point, sonatine, and most of the other kitano films iv'e seen.

Although i would have to say the first time i saw sonatine it left me very cold,
didnt think much of it, but the second time i saw it i loved it..

would agree there not as good as hana-bi..

i was a bit dissapointed with zatoichi, but then im in the minority, most people love it to bits it seems..

oh..and as karl said get sympathy for mr vengeance..
its not really enjoyable, but its very good imo.

Gav99

Yep I'll definitely check out Sympathy for Mr Vengence. I might even give Sonatine a 2nd watch. I just get the feeling that we loose a lot of the story from the subtitle translations. But I suppose the only way around that is to learn Japanese :mad: