[Under preperation]

Marukawa (Kitano) is an underboss in the yakuza. He is running out of steam, he is becoming increasingly bored with the daily routines of being yakuza, he wants to retire. Jealous of his success, Takahashi, Kitajima's right hand, is plotting against Marukawa to take over his area. Incidental the Nakamatsu clan has declared war against the Anan clan and their ask for help. So Marukawa is asked to go to Okinawa and assist. Reluctant he accepts.

Arriving on Okinawa Marakuwa discovers that there is no war. It's just a minor dispute, which easy could be solved. Later the boss of the Nakamatsu clan informs him, that he never asked for help, but that it was Kitajima who insisted on sending it. When a bomb explodes in their office and kills some of his men, he begins to realise that it's a set-up, and later, when another of his men dies after a shoot out in a bar, he has to get away. He decides to hide out on a remote beach, to clear his thoughts and find a solution to the situation.

Boredom soon sets in and the men take up various activities to pass the time: Sumo wresting, russian roulette, dancing, No theatre and much more. Soon the serious yakuza are transformed into playful children. Marakuwa himself even joins in by digging traps all over the beach. One night, while talking a walk, Marakuwa interrupts a rape and kills the rapist. The girl, Miyuki, is grateful and becomes involved with Marakuwa.

Sometime later a message is brought to them by Nakamatsu. He will retire and dissolve his clan, now that Kitajima has made a truce. What's worse is, that Kitajima has expelled Marakuwa from the yakuza and dissolved his clan. Takahashi has now taken over his men and territory. Soon after learning this news, an assassin kills some of Marakuwa's men at the beach. Action must be taken.

Along with the rest of his men, Marakuwa goes into town to find and get Takahashi. They do, but a shooting takes place and the only survivors are Takahashi and Marakuwa. Interrogating him, he admits to the plot and tries to buy his way out. Marakuwa kills him. He goes back to town and waits at the hotel, where Anan and Kitajima are going to meet. He waits until they all are in the conference room, then kills them all.

At the beach Miyuki is waiting for Marakuwa. He is driving back to her, but arriving at the beach, he pulls over to think things thru and realises, that there only is one solution to what has taken place.

"Sonatine" opens with a shock, precisely 1 minut 27 seconds into the film. A 38 second shot begins, as a static Close Up of a boy sorting mah-jong pieces, suddenly, after 14 seconds, the camera pulls back in a tracking shot for 11 seconds, allowing Kitano and Terajima to enter and leave the frame, leaving us with a 13 second static Medium Long Shot of the boy, still sorting pieces. Considering Kitano's persistent use of static frame compositions in his previous three films, this 38 second shot, especially the 11 seconds of backward tracking, hits one in the face, as if a mute person suddenly utters a word.

Less than one minut later, he does it again. We have a 12 second backward tracking shot of Kitano and Terajima leaving the office. At this point any observant Kitano viewer will know, that something extraordinary is installed. "Sonatine" will be different

"Sonatine" is a bold film. The camera is during the Tokyo sequence almost glued to Kitano, following his every move, allowing much action to happened off screen. Equally the framing ignores its elements, as if it says, that only what is in frame is of importance. For instance, in a scene Terajima sits at a table with a lesser yakuza (an initiate) who stands up. The camera ignores this movement, remains static on Terajima and shows only the torso of the initiate. Kitano also allows objects to enter and leave the frame now. Gone are the minimalistic static frame compositions, now we have fluid compositions that allow movement and uses movement as transition to the next shot. A beautiful example of this is a tracking shot aprx ten minuts in to the film, where Kitano and Terajima are leaving a meeting. The camera follows his movement with a pan, then follows him with a MS tracking shot, and then continuing by him, leaving him off screen, only to stop in the next room and having established a line for the next frame, which is a direct 180 degree from its position. Originally Kitano was against camera movement, as he couldn't control what was in the frame. Now he knows exactly what will be in the frame, but also what will be in the next. Kitano is not only controlling the contence of the frames, he is playing with it. Indeed very bold.

Another new element is, that Kitano carefully balances his frames with the dialogue, insisting that each element is important and only by the montage reveals its true meaning. The dialogue is very minimalistic. Each sentence is important. Each sentence, each word, carries weight. Thus he can have a conversation, where we only see one of the participants. Thus he can have one person inform several persons, and we only see those who are meant to be addressed. Then suddenly, totally traditional syntagmatic editing: 180s, going from MS to CU back to MS, adding reaction shots and diegenic inserts.

Arriving at the beach, Kitano changes style. Gone is the fluid camera. Even though he still employs the occasional pan or track to allow scene transition, the beach sequence is mainly static compositions, frequently utilizing the scenery to make compositions in depth. In several scenes, ranging in duration from half to an entire minut, the participants enter at CU and continue into the scene until they are aprx in the middle of the frame at ELS. This is Kitano as we know him. Carefully composed frames, minimalistic in detail and long silent Close Ups.

And still, Kitano finds new ways to enchant us. In a three minut montage, what begins as a yet another "thing to do out of boredom" - the guys building a sumo ring to tumble - becomes a transcendent event, where all the participants share the moment, enjoying themselves and forgetting the world around them. It begins as a normal sequence, but suddenly turning into visual poetry, making no real sense, except evoking a sensation of carefree fun and harmony. All accompanied by Hisaishi's encapsulating score.

Sonatine is the first film by Kitano, where you sense control of the medium, at least so much, that he now trusts Yanagishima to use the camera. That's not only visible, but a fact, which Kitano himself stresses. In an interview he points out, that "...it is with Sonatine that I had the feeling to achieved the first stage as a director." This is also why the film is called "Sonatine". The word sonatine is a musical term meaning little sonate, which amongst other is used for simple educational pieces; Kitano elaborates:

When learning to play the piano, one studies various types of pieces. When one acquires the basic knowledge of these pieces, one has reached sonatine. Its not really control, but it marks the end of first stage of training.

Its also the first film by Kitano where his ensemble is together: Masayuki Mori as producer, Katsumi Yanagishima as cinematographer, Hisaishi as composer and Susumu Terajima and Ren Osugi as essential supporting actors. Thus, Sonatine is the first real film by Kitano, but his style is not yet perfected. That will have to wait until Hana-Bi