For instance, in order to relieve their boredom, the men i nvent a game using paper figures crafted in the form of sumo wrestlers, which move like pawns across a board when the ground is struck. In another sequence, the men form lines on a darkened beach and stage a fake war, launching Roman candles at each other. The succession of ecstatic images is broken up by the playful and ironic Murakama, who insists on firing his gun. Yet they subtly impart the idea that whatever follows is impossible to predict. With Kitano, narrative and plot become wholly secondary to the emotions, moods, and associations his images conjure.
Texture is more important than story.
These sequences illustrate Kitano's method of shifting between engagement and detachment, and his resolve to confound our own sense of anticipation. Kitano invites his audience's will ful surrender to the experiences and the uncommon depth of feeling his movies are predicated on. Sonatine doesn't encourage a straight reading, where logic dictates meaning and importance. When our normal responses are broken down, we relate more directly to the film. A director like John Woo will use violence to express his characters' inner conflicts, but Kitano designs violent, horrifying images to explore their emotional aftermath.