Sonatine

Sonatine (1993) is Takeshi Kitano's deadpan crime drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Kitano writes, directs and stars as Murakawa, a middle-aged Tokyo yakuza who is sick of the killing. His boss ships him off to Okinawa to broker peace between two warring clans — or so the story goes.

It doesn't take Murakawa long to smell the setup. After an ambush thins out his crew, the survivors hole up in a beach house and wait for orders that may never come. What happens next is strange and oddly tender. Hardened gunmen with nothing to do start wrestling in the sand, staging mock duels with paper sumo and toy pistols, killing time between bursts of sudden, matter-of-fact violence.

Kitano shoots death without flinching and without drama: a long held frame, a gunshot, silence. Joe Hisaishi's wistful score and that jagged rhythm turned Sonatine into a touchstone of 1990s Japanese cinema and a favorite among Western directors, Tarantino included. One for viewers who like their gangster films cold, funny and quietly sad. Stream Sonatine (1993) online on iFILM.