Beyond Outrage (2014)

The dialogues written for the main character Ottomo(Takeshi Kitano) was better than most movies similar in genre to ''Beyond Outrage'' (2012). It was fluently portrayed by Takeshi Kitano, who is usually known as a comedian and his co-stars. The action in the movie was also more than decent, the highlight being when Otomo empties a gun on Kataoka at point- blank range, killing him and not attending his funeral.

The film is set five years after the action in Outrage ended. The utterly corrupt Detective Kataoka is still in place, perhaps more entrenched than ever. Detective Shigeta, a somewhat more straight arrow policeman, accompanies Kataoka on some of his tasks. Kato is still the Chairman of the Sanno family. Ishihara, formerly in Otomo's clan, is now Kato's underboss. Sanno has grown considerably in wealth and power, partly because they absorbed Murase's drug business from the first film. Other shifts in the Sanno family are placement of older executives by younger ones, and valuing acquiring money over muscling other families. As the story begins, there is plenty of fuel in the powder keg: the old guard resent the younger upstarts; when one family expands, others just might feel threatened; the cops have decided to squeeze Sanno growth.In the film's opening sequence, the police lift a car out of the water. Kataoka and Shigeta arrive, so one knows there is a yakuza connection. One of the bodies is that of a high government official, and evidence points to the Sanno family issuing the hit order. The police see that Sanno thinks its money is sufficient to buy enough protection for them to openly order the killing of a government official. This seems to be too much to bear.Kataoka sets about riling up the yakuza against each other. He encourages one of the old guard in the Sanno family (and two of his followers) to attempt to unseat and replace Underboss Ishihara. He arranges a meeting with Fuse, the Chairman of the Hanabishi family. That seems to go well, but when the trio report back to Kato, they find that Fuse had described the whole situation to Kato. Fatalities ensue. Resentment increases. Kataoka gets schooled by his superior: did he not know that the Sanno and the Hanabishi were secretly allied?To get the pot boiling even harder, Kataoka arranges for the release of Otomo, whom Kimura (released years before) shanked in prison. Kataoka had misled many (such as Chairman Kato) into thinking Otomo was dead. Now the detective brings him forth to heat things up.Kataoka arranges a meeting between Kimura and Otomo, which goes surprisingly well. Also, he nudges them toward 'helping' the alliance between Hanabishi and Sanno to fail magnificently.That is most of the early context of the film. How goes the execution? Quite well, I would say.-----Scores-----Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent, professional.Sound: 8/10 No particular problems, but them again, I was following the sub-titles.Acting: 10/10 Even better than the original.Screenplay: 8/10 Nice story development. Not as many plot points as the original, but easier to follow.

Outrage was one of the more conventional Kitano films out there, whereas in previous kitano films the violence was mostly implied, outrage reveled in its graphic tone. However it wasn't all shock value, outrage plot was a political masterpiece, with a yakuza that discarded honor and romantic ideals for cold pragmatism, intelligent, calculating characters looking for their adversaries to take a bait and run with it when up until the end it wasn't clear who was manipulating the events and who would come victorious.None of the above remains true in the sequel, first of all Beyond Outrage is a tamer film, I'm not sure if it was a stylistic choice, or one that came from budget limitations, but most of the violence is either implied or shown without gore ; that said the film makes up for it with a great use of sound effects, where you will hear and feel every act of violence thanks to it, it is especially true with gun fire which is loud and powerful as it should be.Now as for the plot, the manipulations and the winner of the struggle are made quite clear from the get-go, this is in part because the script is not as complex as the first one, whereas the original outrage had several layers of deception, here the machinations are simplified and more obvious, characters whose story had run its course in the first one are brought back with a quick dialogue explanation and one relationship in particular is redesigned, but its not very convincing, Even having watched the original, the comeuppance of several characters seems formulaic and not as gratifying as it should have been, lacking the operatic quality previous kitano's entries; the end also comes too soon, leaving the overall endgame hinted at, but not entirely resolved, perhaps in order to make room for a sequel.So in the end Beyond outrage is a much tamer and straightforward film than its predecessor, it could be viewed as a standalone film since the movie recaps the previous plot in several occasions,the film seems commercially motivated and riding on the success of its predecessor, This now takes the crown as Kitano's most accessible film to date, but that doesn't seem to be an achievement to be proud of.

With Outrage, Takeshi Kitano returned to his filmmaking roots and he did not disappoint, bringing to the audience one of his signature yakuza movies. Its follow-up, Outrage Beyond offers more of the same as it focuses on a larger scale conflict this time, a conflict that is the direct result of the events in the first film. The action here revolves around Takeshi Kitano's Otomo and the way his actions lead to a war between two rival yakuza gangs. We find out that Otomo is alive and well, but still in prison after surviving the aftermath of the bloodbath in the first film. His premature release from prison leads to tensions between the two organizations and the apparent peace between them is disrupted. Thus the fight for power begins and the conflict is spiced up by the involvement of a police detective who has interests of his own, all leading to an explosive finale.The film does not fail to deliver, although it is not in the same class as some of Takeshi's other yakuza efforts. It represents an improvement on Outrage in terms of storytelling, there is less focus on old school action and more emphasis is put on the conflict between the characters, which is a good thing since it adds more dimension to the story. The characters themselves are well developed and the acting is what you would expect. On the other hand, the film lacks some creativity and some artistic touch in order to be truly great. All the elements of a Kitano film are here, but they do not stand out as much as they should, even his trademark deadpan humor is served in smaller doses. All things aside, the film is good in its own right and the only reason for it not being on par with Takeshi's best efforts is because those films have set such a high standard. While it does not break any new ground, Outrage Beyond is an entertaining film to watch whether you are a fan of the genre or not and it represents a good addition to Takeshi Kitano's filmography.