The beauty of 'Sonatine'

Think about beautiful gangster films, and the first two "Godfather movies spring to mind. Add "SONATINE" to that list.
TAKESHI KITANO wrote, directed and stars in the yakuza film. I watched it yesterday. Kitano portrays Aniki Murakawa, a Tokyo gang leader sent south to Okinawa by his crime syndicate bosses.
Murakawa and his hoods are being set up, so they retreat to a beach house after they survive a failed ambush attempt.
The film is gorgeous, with cinematographer Katsumi Yanagijima given free rein to use the sets like a canvas. Several of the scenes are more reminiscent of paintings than films.
"THE ROUGH GUIDE TO GANGSTER MOVIES" included "Sonatine" in its list of the 50 best films of the genre. That's pretty good company to keep, and "Sonatine" is an easy film to recommend.