10 Gangster Movies You Must See Before You Die

Multi talented Japanese auteur Takeshi Kitano has often dabbled in the Yakuza underworld, but the finest of his purely gangster-led pictures is 1993’s Sonatine. Like most of Kitano’s films it’s a pitch perfect mix of humour, melancholy, and shocking violence, with the director taking a typically stoic, effortlessly charismatic leading role.

He plays Murakawa, a middle management mafioso who flees to a remote beach house with his crew after an assignment goes badly. There, the mobsters are allowed a rare opportunity to goof off, and play daft games by the shore in some of the movie’s most charming scenes. There’s always violence lurking around the corner, though, and the excursion takes a dark turn as trouble tracks down Murakawa and his men.

Many of Kitano’s films move along like dreams, gliding from scene to scene and playing beautifully with the audience’s expectations. This is superb looking production, the stillness of Kitano’s camera mirroring his minimalist performance. A superb look into a world that is often reduced to a stereotype by the west.