Outrage Coda

Being a huge fan of the first two Outrage movies, I anticipated the newest (and apparently last) Outrage movie in the franchise, Outrage Coda.

After watching the movie I had the definite sense something was missing. The most obvious was that many of the participants in the first two movies weren't there. They were all killed off either in the first or second movie. There's plenty of mob killings in Outrage Coda. Yes, there is action galore, but ....

In my opinion, the absence of Detective Kataoka, the slimy, scheming, corrupt detective who was the Iago to Otomo's Othello is a serious drawback. His conniving scheming between the major crime families and between Otomo and the crime families provided the drama which made the story and the action compelling. Detective Kataoka is not in Outrage Coda obviously, he was done away with in Beyond Outrage, but the scheming, conspiracies, and intrigues between the two families are. This results in a lot of back-and-forth between the families, conspiracies, action, and shoot-outs, but an overall less interesting movie than the first two.

Takeshi Kitano is a good filmmaker, and it is a good movie. For this reason, whether or of you are a confirmed fan of the first two, you should purchase this movie. If you are an Outrage fan, you will watch the first two movies a lot more and this one less.

I reckon if you haven't seen the previous two entries some of the things may not really work for you. As a reviewer stated he thought many things were generic. I highly disagree, especially with the change of location. Now is it as good as the first Outrage? No it isn't, but does it conclude the whole thing in a very satisfying way? You bet it does.

There is a lot of violence but that is to be expected. There is also a lot of crazy connections and intriguing going on. People betraying others, but also some trying to do the honorable thing. Power corrupts ... absolute power corrupts absolutely. Or something along those lines. Also some things seem inevitable, like what goes around comes around. Karma is catching up most of the time - even when it feels not deservedly.

This is the last movie in Outrage serial, and what a great ending it is. There are a plenty of new charachters and some of the charachters from previous Outrage movies, but Otomo is still there, this old style Yakuza is giving creeps to all of Yakuza clans, fantastically played by Beat Takeshi, you can feel his specific and nihilistic humour, just enjoyment to watch, other actors are also great in their roles and this is the last movie to feature Ren Osugi, he was one of my favorite Japanese actors in the last 20 years, may he RIP. I must admit that i enjoy more this movie than the previous, Beyond Outrage, i still don't get it why so much negative reactions and rates for this installment. If you love Beat Takeshi, Yakuza and gangster flicks with sense of humour this movie is definetely for you. I gave 8/10.

These movies taught me to play with them. I know now that people betray you no matter how good you are, you only have to be true to yourself and the right person will notice it.

Do what you do well and never let anybody lure you to the wrong side, always someone wants something from you but be sure that it is the right things.

Never let slows minds slow you down.

This whole trilogy did not impress me at all. Takeshi performs as good as always and the rest of the cast was good also. But generally, all three movies looked flat to me. I love a ton of shooting and a lot of yelling, but these three movies look like a ton of shooting and yelling, and not much of anything else. I reckon Takeshi wanted to make simply an entertaining film, that would probably be enjoyed by mainly Japanese audiences.

The plot in all three movies is basically the same. Yakuza families trying to rise above other Yakuza families. After each dead, a Yakuza family seeks revenge against another family. All of them plot against each other. That's it.

Looks like Takeshi was bored to think of a more interesting plot. I don't know..Some twists in it maybe could help. Some more of that dark humor present here and there would also help. But unfortunately, the overall taste left on me after watching all three movies, is that there is nothing to remember afterwards. At some point even the background music looks like it is totally out of place.

Regarding positives, the actors who played the Yakuza bosses and underbosses all play their parts well. And there are scenes with subtle black humor that made me laugh genuinely. Lastly, these movies do show the vanity of the gangster universe. Sure you can rise to the highest peak in a crime syndicate, but at the end of the day you are nothing but an expendable tool yourself. And each passing day only brings your downfall closer.

I would keep the best ideas from all three movies and i would think of a better plot for a single movie. Three movies with so many similarities between them, for me this is kind of an overkill.

Not among Takeshi's best.