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Sonatine [1993] [DVD]
 
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Sonatine [1993] [DVD]

DVD ~ Takeshi Kitano
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Sonatine [1993] [DVD]
57% buy the item featured on this page:
Sonatine [1993] [DVD] 4.7 out of 5 stars (10)
Hana-Bi [DVD] [1998]
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£4.58
Zatoichi [2004] [DVD]
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Violent Cop [1989] [DVD] [1993]
6% buy
Violent Cop [1989] [DVD] [1993] 3.8 out of 5 stars (14)
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Product details

  • Actors: Takeshi Kitano, Aya Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe, Masanobu Katsumura, Susumu Terajima
  • Directors: Takeshi Kitano
  • Writers: Takeshi Kitano
  • Producers: Hisao Nabeshima, Kazuyoshi Okuyama, Masayuki Mori, Takio Yoshida
  • Format: PAL, Widescreen
  • Language Japanese
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: Pinnacle Vision
  • DVD Release Date: 22 Jan 2007
  • Run Time: 89 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000063KMR
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 30,119 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Special Features
Wide Screen
Japanese
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese
Dolby Digital 2.0
Biographies
Filmographies
Scene Selection
Moving Menus
Stills Gallery
English


Synopsis
In Takeshi Kitano's SONATINE, a Tokyo-based yakuza boss sends Murakawa (Kitano), one of his top men, on a peacekeeping mission to Okinawa, where two rival factions are coming to blows. Murakawa is naturally suspicious of the volatile situation and decides to lay low for a few days on a secluded beach. Slowly Murakawa and his men begin to let their guard down, battling boredom with various games and antics. However, harsh reality finds them sooner than they would have expected--leading to a bloody conclusion. A stunning combination of abrupt violence and quiet meditation, Kitano's film is widely considered a classic.

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great movie, bad DVD, 18 Jan 2004
By A Customer
The movie is great, my favorite Beat Takeshi movie, unfortunately the DVD itself is quite bad.

First, it's not an anamorphic transfer, so you have to use the zoom if you have a widescreen TV. Motion in dimly lit scenes is smeared, colors aren't saturated enough, and the whole image is very soft, without crisp details.

I also have the VHS from ICA Projects, and it actually looks better overall than the DVD.

The second problem are the subtitles, the translation is horrible at times when compared to the VHS. One great piece of dialog goes something like this:

- You're the stupid one
- No, you are the stupid thing

There are also US and Hong Kong DVD releases of Sonatine, but I haven't had the chance to check them out yet.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Kitano, 11 Jul 2003
By Anthony Peckham "meantime_tony" (Leatherhead, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
For those of you who have never entered the world of Beat Takeshi Kitano, you couldn't go wrong with Sonatine. Outbursts of explosive violence at the beginning and end, is interspursed with tranquil sentementality. I can't remember a mob film where the hero is so down on his luck he has to flee or face the consquences, and Kitano makes his acting as this particular mobster look like an artform. Sonatine is will go down as a classic Japanese cult classic and leaves it's Hollywood counterparts in the shade, relegating similar films into average thrillers, where as this film injects intellegence into a tried and tested formula. Buy it!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Kitano at his best, 28 Mar 2002
By A Customer
I first saw this movie on tv, and had no expectations. It remains one of the most memorable films I have seen in the past 7 years, with Takeshi Kitano putting forth a superb performance. The lack of dialogue in many scenes displays fine acting rather than being boring. Being quite a dark movie, Sonatine put many Kitano fans off - some called it his worst - but it is definitely worth a look if you like him, or even if you've never heard of him. Be prepared for some wonderful imagery, a dark sense of humour and a little violence. Not for "Gone in 60 seconds" fans!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Wonderful
I'm going to concerntrate more on the film than the technical aspects of subtitles and transfers as I'm no technical expert. Read more
Published 14 months ago by pjr

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting film
Mmmhhh. This was the first of Beat's film I had seen and it came highly recommended. Overall I enjoyed it but in places it was overly slow in pace. Read more
Published 24 months ago by S Ablett

5.0 out of 5 stars OFFICIAL- WORST SUBTITLES EVER !!!
This film is brilliant- however the DVD is awful, the subtitles come up too late or too early, if they come up at all. Read more
Published on 8 Jul 2004 by capt_n_m_gilbert

4.0 out of 5 stars Great DVD for a great movie
Sonatine is a very good movie, I'd even consider it as a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the editions so far have been very unfair with the movie (bad quality masters and poor analog... Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2003 by el_clown

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding...Bravo!!
This is the second 'Beat' Takeshi film I saw. Although Violent Cop was very engaging and watchable - Sonatine surpasses it. Read more
Published on 13 Jul 2002 by I Talukdar

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Kitano film . . . ever
This is brilliance. Cool, calm yet powerful and violent, reflected in the setting of the seashore. Watch this - the Sumo scenes on the beach will stay with you forever.
Published on 21 Oct 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars A frantic run with death
This is the first movie of Kitano-san I saw, and I keep watching it again and again. It is poetic, sad, funny and fatalistic. Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2000 by D. De Gruijter

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