Sonatine, Takeshi Kitano (1993)

Not quite sure why, but Sonatine hasn't aged well, in a way that Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi, Kids Return, Hana-bi or Kikujiro no natsu haven't (I'm using the Japanese names, not out of snobbery, but because I saw those movies in France and have no clue what their American names are)(Violent Cop and 3-4x juugatsu haven't aged well either, and the less said about Minna-yatteruka). Maybe it's Japanese fashion in the early 90s looking like European fashion in the 80s. Maybe it's the ridiculousness of having a plethora of firearms in a Japanese movie when gun control is more stringent than it is in Europe. Maybe it's Kitano's face before his accident. But I think it's mostly the color palette, something that Kitano would only master with Hana-bi. It seems a bit garish. It feels it was made in the 90s. All the Kitano moments are already here, the lingering shots, the music by Joe Hisaishi, mostly percussive, the small comedic moments (although he has a background as a stand-up comedian, Kitano mostly fails when he goes into full-blown comedy. Minna yatteruka and Takeshis come to mind, which does not bode well for Kantoku Banzai). But it feels that Kitano is more interested in the story, or rather the unraveling of time, than he is in making a story or the composition of a picture (which he demonstrates in Kikujiro no natsu, Hana-bi, Dolls and to a lesser extent Zatoichi).