Rating the Films: Takeshi Kitano
Submitted by ash_campbell on Tue, 12/09/2003 - 06:07
Tags:
- ****
- Sonatine (1993)
- ***1/2
- Hana-Bi (1997)
- Zatoichi (2003)
- ***
- Boiling Point (1990)
- Violent Cop (1989)
- **1/2
- Brother (2000)
Author Comments:
Kitano is a popular artist in Japan who acts, writes, and directs in film besides being a popular stage performer. His films tend to be austere with a strong emphasis on characters and fits of violence. Here’s how his films rate.
I've rated the films from a zero (horrible!) to four (wonderful!) star scale, with the links going to my reviews. As usual, I've only included films I've seen.
You may be being generous to Boiling Point, which I think is his worst film to date. I've been reviewing all of Kitano's movies for my site & am waiting for my copy of his film Dolls to arrive so I can finish up the series.
I'd suggest trying some of his quieter movies. He's mostly known in the US for his gangster/cop films, which is unfortunate. Scene At The Sea and Kids Return are both fantastic and feature no gunplay.
I had so many problems with the first half of Sonatine, but couldn't get enough of the superb second half. Unevenness sealed the lesser grade for me. I gave it a 6/10. Probably I will see it again very soon so we'll see, maybe the grade will go up.
I actually like the first half; it's completely against exspectation (at least for me). I think the quietness of the front half is needed for the second half to not feel forced.