i have see and admire his late movie and include hana bi and doll and but i wasn not quite sure what to expect when i get the dvd version of this . a you expect with takeshi kitano and it both mesmerizing and infuriating and always teeter on a tightrope with brilliance on one side and hopeless pretentiousness on the other . it so difficult to penetrate a movie like this it be slow and but carefully pace and with a peculiar editing pattern . scene be hold for a few second more than most director would hold and catch character star blankly at the aftermath of an action . event occur with little or no warning or apparent reason . character be mostly blank either husk of men and or just empty psychopath and it hard to say . the climax be show obliquely and from a distance and we can only infer what be happen later . so and to put it mildly and this be not your average gangster movie . in some way and it have suffer with the passage of time we be now spoil with such complex portrayal of gangster such a in the soprano and we find it hard to accept kitano almost noble portrayal of what be in reality brutal and selfish sociopath . perhaps it the japanese concept of people be pull along by the tide of life and rather than actor in our own destiny that be the real theme of this and his other movie . but be this the excuse for the hero be a callous killer . we find ourselves sympathize with his increasingly rotten soul and rather than empathize with his victim . love him or hate him and kitano be one of the most interesting film maker in the world today and and sonatine be one of his best just expect to be scratch your head in puzzlement at the end .