Nowadays, it’s safe to say Takeshi Kitano is considered to be one of the best japanese modern director. Even though his recent films received mixed reviews, if you want to discover japanese cinema, Kitano is clearly on your list. Take for example Sonatine. A classic Kitano film! Well, do you know it hasn’t always been like that?
French publisher and notorious movie-goer, Jean-Pierre Dionnet (his blog), reported in an interview, that someone convinced Alain Delon to watch Sonatine arguing that Kitano was a fan of Le Samouraï. Delon was seriously taken aback, and talking about Kitano’s acting, said “what’s THAT? [...], this is not an actor [...], he only got three facial expressions and he almost doesn’t talk on top of this”. Most professionals around Dionnet had the same reject reaction, but the French publisher was both struck and puzzled by this new genre.
He contacted the Japanese distributor in order to buy the license for the exploitation of Sonatine, but his request was strongly rejected. Dionnet had to insist during several months to finally discover that the Shochiku didn’t want to release Sonatine abroad, claiming the movie was “too Japanese” and would not be accepted, nor understood, by western audiences.
Eventually Dionnet learned that the distributor didn’t want to release the license because of its commercial failure in Japan. Dionnet had an agreement with the Shouchiku arguing that the French audience didn’t know Kitano’s career and would accept his violent character more easily.
Via Wikipedia
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