Outrage

The screenplay concerns a struggle for power amongst Tokyo's Yakuza clans . As the boss of a major crime syndicate orders his lieutenant to bring a rogue gang of drug traffickers in line, a job that gets passed on to his long-suffering subordinate . Ôtomo (Beat Takeshi , apart from himself, Takeshi Kitano cast no other actor that has been in one of his films before, as per the producer's suggestion) now a free man seek to live his life away from the Yakuza world but during his imprisonment, things have changed . The Sanno family – who destroyed Ôtomo's family – has become too powerful and the old-guard members felt that the young leaders are risking the whole business because of their extreme greed . One wrong move and it's all out war .

The great Japanese director Beat Takeshi returns to the big screen with ¨Outrage¨ dealing with a genre that gave him international recognition and made him one of the best Asian filmmakers , and being Takeshi Kitano's first gangster film in ten years , after Brother (2000) . It is an exciting picture displaying suspense , tension , and interesting gangsters war , though sometimes difficult to follow . There is also a cruel depiction of Yakuza life in the 21st century . The story opens with a striking wide shot of a large group of gangsters dressed in black as their leaders meet , these guys have sworn allegiance to their bosses, but it means little once the bullets start flying . Cold and violent film with a confuse plot , twisted intrigue , grisly killings , thrills , chilling events and colorful images . His stunning long takes can resemble intricate paintings while his characters enjoy little respite from the ruthlessness of the real world . However , it results to be a little bit boring , including with no sense dialogs and some embarrassing situations adding brutal murders . Following a string of unconventional , commercially unappealing films, Takeshi Kitano engineered this film specifically as commercially appealing, going back to the genre which brought him the most success, and going as far as imagining the death scenes first and writing a story around them later .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Takeshi Kitano in his peculiar style , being his first film shot in 2.35:1 format . Since his 1989 directorial debut, Kitano has written, directed, edited or starred in almost a film per year without losing the momentum of his originality and heightened artistic sensibility. The extraordinary success of 1997's Hana Bi confirmed Kitano's place as a leading figure of international cinema , here offered remarkable visions of violence and beauty . Among its numerous awards, "Hana-bi" or ¨Fireworks¨ won Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion and was named Best Non-European Film by the European Film Academy . In 2000 Kitano made Brother (2000), his first film shot outside of Japan. Originally a comedy star on Japanese television, Takeshi Kitano , aka Beat Takeshi , rose to international fame as a director of Yakuza dramas during the 1990s . "Brother", like other Kitano-directed films such as his debut "Violent Cop" , ¨Boiling Point¨ (1990) and ¨Sonatine¨ (1993), centered around Yakuza (gangster) characters. The filmmaker contrasted the violence and action of those films with comedy or tenderness in films like Ano Natsu, Ichiban Shizukana Umi (1991) (US title: "A Scene at the Sea"), Minnâ-Yatteruka! (1994) (US title: "Getting Any?"), Kizzu ritân (1996) (US title: "Kids Return") and Kikujiro (1999). For the first time in six years, Kitano remained strictly behind the camera on Dolls (2002), his tenth film as a writer-director . His last film is this ¨Outrage¨ that most closely resembles 2000's Brother in tone, but it outdoes that picture by remaining unpredictable with constant betrayals , getting a considerable success .

Viewed at the Festival du Film, Cannes 2010

Takeshi Kitano's return to his familiar stamping ground, the Yakuza, their intrigues, vendettas and highly inventive ways of inflicting extreme unpleasantness on one another, was given less than a stellar welcome by critics at the Festival. A common refrain was that there was nothing new on offer here, no new insights, just a retread of the familiar. Well, they are right, but is that really such a bad thing?

I say no, not when we get tough guys, sharp suits, black humour, extreme violence (you might never want to visit the dentist again), a convoluted plot that is hard to follow but has something to do with rivalry, inheriting the reins of power and inflicting extreme violence on the other team. Oh yes, there's also betrayal and extreme violence.

Outrage is old-school Takeshi Kitano, a (for me) welcome return to his glory days, not that he ever left them behind (I've time for all his films, if not his gameshows). If you like the man, as actor or director, then you won't be disappointed by this film, just as long as you are not expecting something new and different, that is.

Outrage is the film that many fans of director Kitano Takeshi (and, no doubt, his investors) have been clamoring for ever since he embarked on his art-house odyssey with 2002's Dolls. The ensuing years' films ranged from introspective (Takeshis) to wacky (Kantoku Banzai!), and brought him critical acclaim but not much success at the box office. Outrage is clearly designed to please fans of Takeshi's earlier films, such as Sonatine or Violent Cop: hard-boiled gangster films taking places in the shadowy world of Japan's yakuza.

The plot revolves around an internal power struggle within an established yakuza family: a fairly standard trope in gangster films in the East and West. Building on this frame Takeshi piles on a number of events, the sequence characterized by the sort of surreally disconnected quality that I associate with his films. It's difficult to follow causality from one event to the next, and in many cases they seem to operate as interesting vignettes loosely connected through the overarching plot. Some are blackly humorous, some are brutally violent, most are characterized by lots of yelling and cursing in the sort of coarse Japanese that's really difficult for non-native speakers to get. Luckily the plot is simple enough to follow, but I do wonder about missing out on some of the finer details...

The characters are filled out only in broad strokes, and most of the standard types are represented: the godfather-like boss, the loyal lieutenant, the conniving underling, the dundering muscle and so on. Takeshi gets generally excellent performances out of the cast, who manage to come off as sincere and spontaneous. He mentioned in a recent television interview that he shoots most of his scenes in only one or two takes, and the film feels fresh. There's some very good talent here, mostly genre actors but good ones. You develop sympathy for a lot of them by the film's end, which is a mark in its favor.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the film was Takeshi's camera-work, which remains sharp and eye-pleasing as ever. He makes effective use of wide-angle close-ups, and does some great riffs off of Coppola in several scenes. Long pans and still shots are also used well. One that really sticks out in my memory from the beginning of the film is a low, outside shot of a line of black cars, just the rear quarter panels, lined up one after the other traveling down the road. It's an odd shot, but serenely beautiful and effective at conveying a sense of the power and menace of the men inside.

On the minus side, the plot really is simplistic and predictable. Not to the extent of boredom, but once you understand the setup it's not at all hard to imagine how things are bound to turn out. Also, I thought the film felt, on the whole, a bit too clean. The cars in every scene are immaculately polished, every actor is decked out in a neatly arranged designer suit, and every set has all of its props in a neatly prescribed arrangement. It presents a somewhat dystopic, but ultimately whitewashed view of yakuza society that would feel retrograde in a Western gangster film.

Overall, it's nice to see a new yakuza film come out of Takeshi's shop, hallmarked with the same sort of black humor, extreme violence and artistic flair that we've come to expect from this perennial festival honoree. I would, however, have liked to see a bit more of how his intervening films might have affected this genre. Outrage is a good yakuza film, but doesn't do much (enough?) to step outside of its element.

A very well-executed movie in terms of directing and acting, and it's a decent watch for anyone who enjoys a good mafia movie, or a yakuza movie as the case may be. However, there is nothing new on display. It blends in with the masses and masses of movies in its genre.

Throughout the entire movie, I kept feeling a sense of lack. This lack was a lack of sympathy you feel for these characters, and the lack of understanding for the system on display. You don't understand what's going on until about an hour into the movie, and by then it's a little too late to care. There's a little too much shooting first, and too few questions asked. I believe Kitano really tried to write a movie that could stand among classics like Scarface and the Godfather in terms of epics, but fell short.

However, I would say the movie is worth a watch, if only to see what the movie could've been.

I was surprised to run into Outrage in a fantasy-horror festival, yet there were several gore scenes that clearly qualified the movie for it.

Whether you like Takeshi Kitano or not, he sure is good in depicting the yakuza. In the long run this ability got him typecast and he tried to brake the mold in several movies between Brother (2000) and Outrage. For some reason he decided not to pursue his artistic ambition for a while and focus again on Japanese underworld. And this is in no way a step back.

The power struggle between the old boss and his right hand is exquisitely depicted. Without it Outrage would be just another crime thriller with extreme scenes of violence.