Outrage (2011)

OUTRAGE marks the first Beat Takeshi Yakuza film from the writer/director/star in a decade, ever since the exemplary BROTHER. The good news is that OUTRAGE is a mini-masterpiece of a Yakuza film, with a classic tit-for-tat plot, some outrageously gory moments, and a real verve and drive to it that makes for unmissable viewing. Be warned: this is very grisly stuff indeed, and it may well be the goriest Yakuza film I've yet to watch.The plot is familiar stuff about a feuding Yakuza family and how the feud begins with small scale stuff before building into a full-blown massacre. The production values are exemplary: this is beautifully-shot stuff in which even the gore and bloodshed is handled in an attractive way. The performances are all very good, not least from the brooding auteur himself, and the ending is extremely downbeat and pessimistic rather than the usual gung-ho stuff we see in the movies. A sequel, BEYOND OUTRAGE, followed.

After a series of somewhat more experimental and introspective films Takeshi Kitano is back to his familiar yakuza subject matter, this time with some adjustments.Outrage is set in the deepest end of the yakuza world, the opening scenes drop us at the table of a formal yakuza meeting introducing us to those who hold power and those who receive orders. It's at this meeting that comes the first move in a long violent game of deceit and revenge with many players striving for their piece of the action. The numerous characters we're involved with and intertwining plot means Outrage requires our full attention, but it very much deserves it.Outrage looks crisp and each shot is beautifully framed something that delivers the trademark Kitano violence in an even more visceral and in many cases haunting way(the ol' yakuza finger chopping).With this Kitano juxtaposes violence with scenes of calm and collected formal yakuza meetings or conversations of further scheming. We're given brief moments to piece the puzzles together before we are thrown back into the fire. Kitano's ruthlessness does prove at times a little frustrating, it seems with some of the supporting characters as soon as we begin to like them or take their side - something we're not forced into, their death is right around the corner, however this works in Kitano's favour highlighting just how much violent deceit and backstabbing is really going on in this yakuza world.With Outrage Kitano is more restrained in some areas, for example the music is very minimal(as opposed to a pronounced score from Joe Hisaishi(Sonatine,Dolls))and part of the background.As well as this there aren't any abstract messages here, or even any weirdness at all something many have come to expect from Kitano, but in this case there doesn't need to be any, Outrage is already bursting with story and characters. Despite the lack of weird Kitano still has his fun, and a great scene involves reference to the Senator Pat Geary blackmail from Godfather 2.One area Kitano didn't seem to show as much restraint in is with the sheer amount of story we're exposed to at once.There are simply so many characters interacting it can feel that as an audience we're dealing with too much at once, even if it is fun. Perhaps if we were dealing with less characters we wouldn't get a sense of the yakuza world as a whole, but the movie would feel less like its always about to burst.Overall Outrage is a complicated story with a rather simple point: to highlight the irony that there exists honor in the yakuza world, where deceit is everywhere, and even a pact over sake can be broken, power is everything and honor is something for those who can be used. While the characters aren't as developed as other similar films it still works in Outrage, as we're taking a look into the entire yakuza world, its politics, how it runs, and where it fails. Outrage is a beautifully crafted example of a deeply complex gangster film that holds it own against films like Infernal Affairs and Election. 7.5/10

I sat down to watch this film knowing that it would be violent and stylishly directed, because I know the director's work. I did not expect it to make me laugh out loud. But the opening, with the yakuza in their black suits and in their black Mercedes trying so hard to pretend to be something they are not (respectable businessmen) was downright funny. I knew right away that this would not be a glorification of organized crime (as so many yakuza movies are.) The mobsters in this one are stupid, greedy, vile tempered. The ending was completely predictable, if you paid attention, and it was strangely satisfying. Not sure why a sequel is coming out.

"When Mr. Murase and I were in prison together we made a pact over saké." After the head of a Yakuza family learns of his henchman's betrayal to a drug dealing family he starts a war that changes everything. This is a very good movie that is equal parts tense, bloody and dramatic. The only problem is that the flow seems off. Going from scenes of murder and finger cutting to long sequences of nothing happening makes it hard to get fully engrossed. On the other hand it is also a movie that forces you to keep watching in order to find out which family will ultimately win out. I did enjoy this but this is not a movie for everyone. A movie with no real good guy and leaves you watching not sure who to root for. I like movies like that. Overall, a good but slow movie that is almost an updated Japanese Godfather. I give it a B.