Sonatine

Murakawa, a yakuza working in Tokyo, is sent to Okinawa to settle a dispute between two gangs. He suspects the job is a trap. Surviving the ambush, he and his men retreat to a house on the beach and wait. Takeshi Kitano directed and starred. The beach section in the middle became his signature: armed men playing children's games, faking sumo bouts, running tricks with paper. Then the same men kill each other with the same calm. In Japan it was a box office disaster, taking 58,834 dollars domestically. The person who carried it abroad was the French distributor Jean-Pierre Dionnet, who argued that Western audiences unfamiliar with Kitano would appreciate his understated performance. It was acclaimed in France in 1995, reached North America in 1998, and Quentin Tarantino distributed the subtitled version through his own company. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 93 percent. Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars and wrote that it goes past the usual gangster material. Joe Hisaishi's score won a Japanese Academy Award in 1994. Who it is for: viewers who like violence told through silence, and admirers of Kitano. Who it is not for: anyone wanting action pacing. The film is built out of long gaps, and the deaths arrive unprepared, short and without display.