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Poster for Sonatine

Sonatine

1993 · 94 min

Quiet, deadpan and strangely serene, drifting between sudden brutality and childlike beach games, leaving a lingering sense of fatalism.

Tagline
A ferocious man sleeps here.
Overview
Murakawa, an aging Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life, is sent by his boss to Okinawa along with a few of his henchmen to help end a gang war, supposedly as mediators between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, his group is attacked in an ambush. The survivors flee and make a decision to lay low at the beach while they await further instructions.

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 3 of 3
  • darkstrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • whimsicalstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • death
  • fate
  • isolation
  • betrayal
  • violence
Places
  • big city
  • sea
  • single country house
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore mild
  • Language mild
  • Violence strong
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action5
Horror2
Humour4
Realism7
Romance3
Tension6
Darkness7
Complexity6
Emotional weight7

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Where to watch in the UK

Rent or buy
  • Apple TV Store
  • Amazon Video

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
action, crime, thriller
Directed by
Takeshi Kitano
Written by
Takeshi Kitano
Starring
Takeshi Kitano, Aya Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe, Masanobu Katsumura, Susumu Terajima, Ren Osugi, Tonbo Zushi, Kenichi Yajima
Music
Joe Hisaishi
Cinematography
Katsumi Yanagijima
Runtime
94 min
Country
Japan
Languages
Japanese

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