Jitsuroku Andô Noboru kyôdô-den: Rekka

Assassins from the Otaki group murder Yuya Uchida (manager/producer of 1970's psychedelic prog metal band Flower Travellin' Band, who provide the film's soundtrack) leader of the Sanada group. Riki Takeuchi considered him a father figure and wants vengeance, but the leaders of both groups want to avoid a war and enlist Bando group leader Sonny Chiba to negotiate a truce.

So ... it's all a scheme by both groups second-in-commands to eliminate the leaders and take over, with Chiba running the whole show. They trick Takeuchi into killing Otaki group leader Renji Ishibashi and then try to kill him to close all loose ends. Those loose ends stay very much open.

Takashi Miike has a tendency to make films that are so loose and ramshackle that they feel like they may fall apart at any minute. This is one of those. That doesn't mean they're necessarily bad ... and this one certainly isn't ... but it does mean that after a really dynamic opening and before it's amazing gonzo conclusion, you get a lot of meandering scenes of yakuza dumping plot exposition on each other. It's not always dull ... mainly due to Miike's tendency to stage very weird scenes like two yakuza talking outdoors in a playground in the rain each holding tiny transparent plastic umbrellas ... but it frequently is.

The Flower Travellin' Band soundtrack is worth the price of admission.

Miike shows us in this film his outstanding gift for the yakuza genre from the first minute to the last. This time he adds a soundtrack from the Flower Traveling Band, Satori, a Doom Metal key album from 1971 that makes those master shoots, of perfect color, shine without stopping during the cinematographic experience he proposes. His characters flow before the viewer like a handful of impossible to stop Japanese scarfaces. Shinjuku, mafia, escorts, magic and Rock and Roll !!

This was really one great ride from Takashi Miike, if you love or you are familliar with his style you will really enjoy Deadly Outlaw:Rekka, it is not intelligent movie, it is not movie with a big budget but it is entertraining and full of energy, and yes the cast in this one is amazing, so many great memorable faces from Japanese cinema, sadly a lot of them are now deceased: Joe Yamanaka, Rikiya Yasuoka, Yuya Uchida, Tetsuro Tanba, Shin'ichi Chiba and the main protagonist of the movie Riki Takeuchi, this is one of his most memorable roles for sure. The first half of the movie is like any other regular Yakuza movie, the second part is more unique cartoonish Miike style, and it works in the movie very well, love the ending when Riki is taking Bazooka to destroy his enemies. You will remember this movie thanks to magnificent cast and its charachters, i enjoyed this one more than more known Dead or Alive. In the same day i have watched Kikoku or Yakuza Demon from 2003, it is different sort of the movie, more regular Yakuza crime, but my recoomendation is to watch it in combination with Deadly Outlaw Rekka. I give this one 8/10.

DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA is a rare misfire from the usually interesting Takashi Miike, who can typically be relied upon from making outrageously entertaining movies. This is a standard Yakuza movie, featuring a low rent thug who decides to go on an odyssey of revenge, yet despite a few moments of surrealism and violence you can't really tell it's a Miike film at all.

Instead it has more in common with low budget art-house fare, featuring interchangeable characters and some padded scenes of characters wandering the streets aimlessly at night. Oh, there's bound to be a brutal fight scene or execution around the next corner, but there isn't anything that makes you care about what's going on. Okay, I don't watch a Miike film for the characterisation, but at least ICHI THE KILLER had tons of incident and AUDITION's slow build worked when matched with THAT ending.

This one's predictable in the extreme, I couldn't care less about the characters, and the whole 'stone face' type of acting is just a bit dull. Miike tries to spice things up with a sex scene here and a mutilation there, but it isn't enough; for much of the running time, I was simply bored. DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA does have the same kind of hustle and vibe as the early gangster films of Beat Takeshi, but it lacks their finesse and raw power. Attempts to make it feel like an old-fashioned grindhouse movie of the 1970s don't really gel either; instead this movie is both slight and forgettable.

Like many people I was first turned onto the works of the great director Takashi Miike in the movie "Ichi the killer". After viewing that film I was instantly hooked to his take no prisoners style. Takashi Miike is a man that truly stretches the boundaries of violence and audacity into an art form. Several months later I was surprised to see "Deadly Outlaw Rekka" sitting on the shelves of my local Best Buy. Due to the rarity of Takashi Miike's films I bought it without hesitation, and I'm glad I did. Japanese film star Riki Takuechi (or as i like to call him, cool hair guy from "Dead or Alive") plays the roll of Kunisada, a grizzly yakuza hell bent on revenge for the death of his boss. As the story unfolds the audience becomes ensnared in webs of love, betrayal, sorrow, and revenge. Though lacking in the unbridled violence that originally drew me in to these kind of movies the gritty and often times zany style of Takashi Miike remains ever present. Overall "Deadly Outlaw Rekka" is a fantastic film that is a must have for fans of Takashi Miike or just really great action films and worthy addition to any movie collection!