Absolutely Fantastic

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

What are some words out there to describe the evil Japanese clan "Yakuza?" It comes down to brutality, unforgiving, relentless, and an absolute pledge. Fortunately, The Outrage, directed by Takeshi Kitano who is famous for Battle Royal, manages to tell the cruel side of Yakuza world where a verbal conflict leads to spattering blood until the strongest wins. To summarize the plot, the two different crime organizations owned by an affluent Sanmo-kai chairman get into a vicious quarrel as each subordinate gets killed one by one from back-to-back retaliation. As they are inclined to execute everything they are told by their higher-ups under any occasion, the story gets deeper and intense.We also get to see all types of violence for the punishment and vengeance. One of the traditional ways of making it up for one's miscue is to slice one of their fingers. There is zero mercy and sympathy.To talk about some downsides, As the justice being the symbol of the police, a lieutenant forms an alliance with the Yakuza chairman by getting a bribe. There is no need to reprimand the director portraying an unlawful decorum of police here. But, the real disappointment lies on the incompetent power of a legislative body that faces against Yakuza being one-sided as they easily makes a mockery of the police.For example, there is a scene where a luxury car with a corpse in the trunk tries to pass through an inspection gate which is heavily guarded by more than three officers. And, one of the subordinates, Ishihara who is fluent in English pretends be a foreigner who does not understand a word of Japanese so the officer just meekly lets them pass despite discovering blood dripping from the trunk. That is not all. The officer getting rejected for frisking the trunk because they state that it belongs to an embassy! It neglects the duty and proprietary of the police whose jobs are to identify any suspects.Not only that, while a number of Yakuza members getting killed in public, the police does not even try to arrest a single member because of inadequate evidence! All I see is the same lieutenant taking a bribe and yelling at the alleged Yakuza "You did it right?" "Don't lie to me!" whilst the rest of his comrades being dormant. Can't the director bother to make an even one scene where forensics examining fingerprints?Even it is an intention of director to show corrupted side of Japanese police, I still think they should implement detailed investigation scenes where police and Yakuza congregate.Other than that, the story itself delivers well. The lesson in this movie would be human beings have the effrontery to betray anyone in order to fulfill their own goal, at least in Yakuza world. Sadly, the world we are living in may not be as hopeful as we think yet.

What is black and white and red all over? Takeshi Kitano's latest Gangster flick, Outrage! From the seemingly auspicious opening scenes where all the characters are dressed in every manner of $5,000 black suit and handmade white dress shirt (they look like they just stepped from the pages of GQ Magazine except perhaps for their "war torn" complexions), to endless processionals of black high-end luxury automobiles which impressively fill the screen. Kitano's film does not disappoint, unless of course you are looking for a solid story line with any meaning besides ostensibly senseless violence, hence the red.It seems the film's title would have been more fitting if it were called "Power". The only thing I could surmise in the plot to be outraged about was the very first "slight" from one arm (or finger) of the family overcharging another for the services of a call girl, an apparent set up. Or perhaps the outrage is the continual retribution for slights and gaffes occurring between families. I wonder how any of them were still alive prior to the meal portrayed in the opening scene since it seems the slightest accusation will get you killed.Attempting to find meaning in Outrage, leaves one with more questions than answers. Drugs and the incorporation of that "business model" is an ongoing theme in famous gangster movies we love like The Godfather, Scarface and Goodfella's, and it also plays a small part in Outrage so Kitano is following the recipe anyway. I think Kitano's sly irreverence could be poking fun at himself and gangster movies but he does it with a visual elegance that is completely watchable. The lush Japanese scenery, gardens, luxury and beach homes seem to contrast with the shots (literally) of the gangsters which Kitano keeps front and center. The mies en scene of Outrage guides the viewer between peaceful lovely visuals and violent mid to short shots of the "players". Is Kitano contrasting good and evil and making a point that everyone even the sociopath among us provides a perverse balance to life…and death?

"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.

Sanno-Kai is a powerful yakuza organization with a hierarchical structure of several mutually subordinate clans. Head of Organization, Sekiuchi (Soichiro Kitamura), is dissatisfied with the closeness of his assistant chief Ikemoto (Jun Kunimura) with rival clan of Murase (Renji Ishibashi). Since Ikemoto's clan made a brotherly agreement with Murase's clan, he engages Otomo (Takeshi Kitano) to create a conflict that will eliminate doubts of Sekuichi. Otomo is the head of the family subordinated to Ikemoto, but delegated task to rough Murase gang members up a bit takes over-zealously. This act will ignite bloody spiral of inevitable revenge, sadistic violence and dirty power struggle between the clans, with the head of the organization in the heart of the conflict...The versatile Japanese director Takeshi Kitano has built a worldwide reputation in the nineties recording impressive auteur films about the yakuzas. After he shot the film Brother (2000), he left the genre inspired by the Japanese underworld, and devoted himself to film work on a series of art-drama, exploring the theme of intimate and spiritual significance. With movie Outrage (Autoreiji, 2010) he has closed the full circle of different genre preoccupations and returned to the territory of yakuza clan films. But loyal Kitano audience is likely to be disappointed by the realization of the director's return to the genre: the title of the new film is also its program. Outrage is reduced to the naked and brutal retaliatory clashes and struggle for power and the corresponding territory.Recognizable stylistic origins of earlier Kitano's genre works are in Outrage almost entirely abandoned. In this movie we do not come across the hardened criminals with a humanistic line, ready to dispose of weapons and far away from everyday underground enjoy relaxation in the infantile pastime. World of meditative yakuza characters filled with elegiac lyric is replaced in Outrage with world of one-dimensional techno-gangsters filled with blood of unstoppable brutality. Slow poetics of existential doubt is substituted with the stereotypical characteristic of gangster genre - ruthless struggle for power and money.The narrative of Outrage is told through the tangled web of secret treaties, broken promises, betrayed loyalties, conspiratorial intrigue, fierce revenge and blatant treason, and is constantly escalating in brutal skirmishes. Compliance with the order and hierarchy is nothing but a mere illusion, practice of cutting fingers has lost the value of ritual apology and the only thing left is the cyclical violence in which each execution surpasses the previous. Moreover, the motif of constant violence is repeated until it reaches the final boundaries of the absurd. In an effort that the routine of execution do not become boringly monotone, movie visual aesthetic of violence is presented in an extremely juicy graphics and the borders of creativity are examined in the methods of many executions. Painful cries resound from the use of handguns, crowbars, scalpels, dental drills and innovative combination of rope and luxury sedan. The only element that saves the movie from its classification in the exploitation genre is the intelligent use of black humor, to the extent that the movie is at times transformed into a comic farce, and even unintentional slapstick, especially when the character of African diplomat is in the focus.Takeshi Kitano has returned to the genre of yakuza movies after ten years but without any artistic pretensions. Outrage is a dynamic movie showing successive executions sometimes garnished with black humor, which can provide greater commercial success, but also bring disappointment to many of director fans. New Kitano movie is one-adrenaline entertainment and nothing more, unfortunately.