JAPANESE MOB BRUTALLY FUNNY IN `SONATINE'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

You may already be familiar with Takeshi ``Beat'' Kitano, the Japanese writer-director-actor-film editor-painter-novelist-newspaper columnist-ubiquitous television personality. His latest feature ``Hana-Bai'' (``Fireworks'') opened in L.A. a few weeks ago, and now an earlier, equally accomplished work, ``Sonatine,'' has arrived.

For a guy this overextended, ``Sonatine'' is a remarkably controlled and imaginative work. A violent gangster drama full of wonderfully fresh excursions into comedy and behavioral observation, the movie is further proof that Kitano is the finest Japanese filmmaker to emerge since Juzo Itami, the late director of ``Tampopo'' and ``A Taxing Woman.''

Kitano, who resembles Jackie Chan with a face made out of granite, also stars in ``Sonatine'' as Murakawa, a successful mob underboss who controls organized crime in his section of Tokyo with an impassive but unforgiving grasp. When his yakuza overlord orders Murakawa and his best lieutenants to mediate a truce between warring crime clans on the island of Okinawa, they smell a rat.

Still, they dutifully head south, set up shop with one of the rival gangs and negotiate with the other. Following a bloody ambush, however, Murakawa and his surviving allies take refuge at an isolated beach house.

Up to this point, Kitano portrays the yakuza life as a boring existence of sitting around and staring into space, punctuated by sudden outbursts of carnage. Stuck by the ocean, though, the gangsters blossom into a fun-loving bunch of goofballs, donning tropical shirts, playing games in the sand and generally enjoying an impromptu holiday. The film's austere initial tone changes quite persuasively to one of jaunty camaraderie; it's like the ``GoodFellas''' cooking-in-prison sequence extended for half the movie.

The hard-boiled Murakawa even manages to strike up a sweet little romance with a local woman (Aya Kokumai) - after he shoots the guy who raped her, anyway. But as the dimensions of the plot against them slowly unfold, Murakawa's merry band must face the fact that vacation time is over and, from their new perspective, decide just how violent a plan of action they can each participate in.

Though the conventional take on Kitano is that he's Japan's answer to recent waves of Hong Kong gangster films, his quirkier take on the genre is more in keeping with his country's own long run of idiosyncratic yakuza and samurai pictures. Though the violence in ``Sonatine'' is indeed brutal and sometimes graphic, it's definitely the sideshow; amusing, humanizing character revelation is the real story here.

In addition, ``Sonatine'' has a rich, classically composed look inspired by the best traditions of Japanese cinema and art.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Sonatine'' (R; violence, language, nudity, drug use).

The stars: Takeshi ``Beat'' Kitano, Tetsu Watanabe, Aya Kokumai.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Takeshi Kitano. Produced by Masayuki Mori, Hisao Nabeshima and Takeo Yoshida. Released by Miramax Films/Rolling Thunder Pictures. In Japanese with English subtitles.

Running time: One hour, 34 minutes.

Playing: Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

Our rating: Three and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Takeshi Kitano portrays a gangster with a capacity for violence and human bonding.