In “Outrage,” a new yakuza story from Takeshi Kitano, the assaults on the human body are frequent, brutal and at times accompanied by cruel comedy. One man nearly loses his sight; another surely loses his hearing (chopsticks go where none should); and a third suffers a gruesome, teeth-shattering assault during a dental exam, an attack that suggests that Mr. Kitano may have watched “Marathon Man” in the decade since he directed “Brother,” his last yakuza film. Whatever their inspirations, these baroque spasms of violence — evoking see, hear and speak no evil — are just a few of the tortures that he rains down on his characters like a vengeful, mocking god.
Perhaps best known in the United States for his yakuza and cop movies, including the masterly “Sonatine” and “Hana-bi,” Mr. Kitano and his films resist easy genre categorization. He makes bloody, disgusting art films and poetic pulp fictions, and restlessly shifts between absurdity and seriousness. (His period samurai movie, “The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi,” ends with an exuberant clog dance shot like a Busby Berkeley extravaganza.) “Outrage,” set in the present, hews to a largely familiar gangster template, with degrees of bad (badder, baddest) men fighting in a war of all against all. Somewhat muted, it has few true surprises, which may be intentional because a familiarity with the yakuza, its rituals, violence and code helps make the ensuing narrative surprises pop.
Written, directed and edited by Mr. Kitano, the vertiginous story centers on the Sanno-kai crime organization, a hydra-headed, Tokyo-based syndicate led by a plump smiler in a Nehru jacket normally known only as Mr. Chairman (Soichiro Kitamura). The film opens at an isolated compound just as a meeting with the organization’s different clan bosses and underbosses is breaking up. One boss, Ikemoto (Jun Kunimura), while serving time in prison, has made a brotherly pact with an outsider, Murase (Renji Ishibashi). Warned against this alliance, Ikemoto turns to a subordinate clan boss, Otomo (Mr. Kitano, using his regular acting moniker, Beat Takeshi) to deal quietly with Murase, a betrayal — of Murase, of Otomo — that lights a fuse that sizzles, burns and blows this world to pieces.
Otomo is initially surprised that Ikemoto has asked him to break the pact with Murase, but he follows his orders with ruthless efficiency. His actions bring the predictable reactions from Murase, and the bloodshed begets retaliatory bloodshed, which in turn begets further vengeance, as one death leads to another or at least a severe beating. Gradually, Otomo begins to understand that Ikemoto’s betrayal of Murase isn’t just a breach of yakuza ethics, such as they are, but is symptomatic of a rot eating away at the inside of the organization. Otomo keeps fighting on behalf of his yakuza brothers but he is a man out of time in a world impatient for him to move on. The clans still gather around the table together, yet their rituals and sacrifices — and severed fingers — have become so many empty gestures.
Mr. Kitano’s immaculate compositions and eccentric flourishes are part of the film’s sustained, muted pleasures and are often in service to some underlying meaning. In the first scene, a long traveling shot of the visiting clan members, almost all dressed in black, underscores their numbers but also makes a vivid, pointed contrast to the white tracksuits worn by Mr. Chairman’s own attendants. Not everything is as elegantly executed, including a tiresome, would-be comic subplot involving an African diplomat and a clandestine casino that drags the story down badly and comes close to noxious racial stereotype. In time, Mr. Kitano loses interest in the diplomat and returns his gaze to the yakuza, attention that brings with it a detached, chilling finality and a sense of actual tragedy.
“Outrage” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Extreme gun, blade and chopstick violence. New York Times
A Warner Bros. (international) release of a Bandai Visual, TV Tokyo, Omnibus Japan, Office Kitano production. (International sales: Celluloid Dreams, Paris.) Produced by Masayuki Mori, Takio Yoshida. Directed, written by Takeshi Kitano.
With: Beat Takeshi, Kippei Shiina, Ryo Kase, Tomokazu Miura, Jun Kunimura, Tetta Sugimoto, Takashi Tsukamoto, Hideo Nakano, Renji Ishibashi, Fumiyo Kohinata, Soichiro Kitamura.
While erstwhile king of yakuza epics Takeshi Kitano doesn't try to do much new in "Outrage," the Japanese multihyphenate's first such nihilistic bloodbath in the decade since "Brother," the results are so visually stunning, why quibble? Focusing on the absurdly ultraviolent tit-for-tat tussles among a trio of Tokyo crime families, the film is a beautifully staged marvel that confidently reasserts Kitano's considerable cinematic gifts. Unlike his '90s masterpieces "Sonatine" and "Fireworks," "Outrage" boasts a narrative that's intricate only in linear fashion, to the likely benefit of worldwide B.O.
Kitano's trilogy-long sojourn into the territory of self-reflexive (many would say self-indulgent) dramas (e.g., "Takeshis") has left his core audience hungry for the filmmaker's return to the gangster movie. "Outrage" satisfies that craving with its bevy of grisly setpieces, each carefully designed to bring the genre another step closer to horror.
Suffice to say the film isn't for the squeamish. The yakuzas' weapons of choice include not only pistols and machine guns but chopsticks, a coiled snake, dental equipment and, most spectacularly, a dastardly combination of rope and automobile. The borderline farcical severity of bodily perforation here would be irredeemable if not for the finesse with which these moments are, um, executed by the director, who wields his own tools with the darkest glee.
The pic's savage mayhem is set in motion by a simple conversation, wherein it's revealed that the Chairman (Soichiro Kitamura), boss of the ruling Sanno-kai family, has become upset over the Ikemoto clan's connections to Murase (Renji Ishibashi) and his crew. Needing help, Ikemoto (Jun Kunimura) asks the all-knowing and super-cool Otomo (Kitano, billed per usual as Beat Takeshi) to keep the peace by stirring up trouble.
Incrementally, petty humiliations across the clans give way to brutally aggressive displays of power. After one yakuza has been slashed with an "X" across the face and another has been beaten to death, Otomo agrees to take care of the situation, promising Ikemoto he'll rough up old Murase a "little." This he does in an act of rogue dentistry far exceeding that in "Marathon Man."
The philosophical explorations of violence and its consequences, distinguishing features of Kitano's '90s work in the yakuza genre, are essentially nowhere to be found here. Still, the director's control over the narrative is drum-tight in a film whose intertwined incidents demand -- and reward -- one's close attention. Halfway through, the violence temporarily subsides, only to resume with even greater force. By the final reels, it's all-out yakuza war.
The film's large ensemble of actors takes palpable enjoyment in playing these toughs and their victims. As Otomo, the generally deadpan Kitano even cracks a faint smile or two. Playing Ozawa, Tetta Sugimoto flaunts an evil grin worthy of Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death." As Otomo's loyal underling Ishihara, Ryo Kase, in brown-tinted shades, is rivetingly implacable. Women, naturally, are scarce in the picture, although Otomo's g.f. appears long enough to be chastised viciously by her beau -- for disliking his new car. (Obviously, much worse is to follow for her.)
Tech credits are superlative, particularly Katsumi Yanagijima's gliding, richly dark cinematography, Keiichi Suzuki's playfully synth-laden score, and a sound design that sends bullet casings hurling to the surround speakers while keeping the punches squarely in one's face.
Camera (color, widescreen), Katsumi Yanagijima; editors, Kitano, Yoshinori Ota; music, Keiichi Suzuki; production designer, Norihiro Isoda; set decorator, Tatsuo Ozeki; costume designer, Kazuko Kurosawa, Yohji Yamamoto; sound (Dolby Digital), Senji Horiuchi; supervising sound effects editor, Kenji Shibasaki; line producers, Shinji Komiya, Makoto Kakurai; associate producers, Katsuji Umezawa, Tadao Hanashi, Yoshinori Takeda; assistant director, Hirofumi Inaba; casting, Takefumi Yoshikawa. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 16, 2010. Running time: 110 MIN.]
Been years since I last watched a Kitano film. And I watched most of his films. Didn't knew that he had returned doing a cop/mafia film. I'll watch this one as well:
