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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 7 March 2013
This article is a review of OUTRAGE BEYOND. |
“You three look busy plotting,” Detective Kataoka
In between BROTHER and OUTRAGE fans of writer-director-actor ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano had to wait 10 years for one of his sublime gangster pics. The five flicks in between ranged from the self-referential, to the comical, to the achingly romantic, and of course, the badass: ZATOICHI. I guess the films that made his name internationally (BOILING POINT, HANA-BI), were being clamoured for. OUTRAGE was a brutal, but slightly forgettable return. It had the motifs, but something was missing: Soul, a heart. Contrast his best film, SONATINE, a brilliant and emotionally engaging crime film. OUTRAGE BEYOND may appear to be a sequel, but it isn’t in terms of characters or plot, rather a continuation of the ideas Kitano tackled in his previous project.
In between BROTHER and OUTRAGE fans of writer-director-actor ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano had to wait 10 years for one of his sublime gangster pics. The five flicks in between ranged from the self-referential, to the comical, to the achingly romantic, and of course, the badass: ZATOICHI. I guess the films that made his name internationally (BOILING POINT, HANA-BI), were being clamoured for. OUTRAGE was a brutal, but slightly forgettable return. It had the motifs, but something was missing: Soul, a heart. Contrast his best film, SONATINE, a brilliant and emotionally engaging crime film. OUTRAGE BEYOND may appear to be a sequel, but it isn’t in terms of characters or plot, rather a continuation of the ideas Kitano tackled in his previous project.
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Takeshi has never been about the glamorisation of gangster culture, even with him playing the leads. There are always consequences for those involved in the world of illegality and violence. Maybe he resents being pulled back into the genre, but OUTRAGE and OUTRAGE BEYOND is even less forgiving of its protagonists. OUTRAGE looked at the grim fallout of gang war. OUTRAGE BEYOND grows in ambition to tackle political and police corruption. One detective, who takes payment from the yakuza, is under considerable pressure to curtail organised crime, after the opening credits reveal a car being pulled from a harbour with a dead cop inside. Clearly bright, and amoral, Detective Kataoka decides to play two of the largest mafia families (the Sannos and the Hanabishis) off against each other. Dealing in insecurities, grudges and the propensity for distrust, he uses just words to set off a chain reaction of betrayals. To facilitate his scheme, he gets Otomo (Kitano) out of prison early on parole.
There is a nice nod to corporate warfare. The mafia call the heads of families within clans as “executives”, and the godfather is not referred to as such, but as the “chairman”. Maybe the writer-director is getting explicitly allegorical? The mercilessness of modern capitalism as a gangster flick.
When the reprisals and the disregard for brinkmanship begin, the expected killings ensue, but arguably more people die here than in any of Beat’s oeuvre. There’s no catharsis – it’s horrible people, doing horrible things to each other. There’s even a scene reminiscent of Brian De Pamla’s SCARFACE, involving a drill instead of a chainsaw. All the carnage is delivered with the director’s usual panache. The striking accessories of beautiful cars and sharp suits are a thin veil masking the morally degenerate. And OUTRAGE BEYOND condemns. Any vitriol is tempered though with a quiet sorrow, at the inability to retire. Memories are too long and the rush is unequalled in civilian life. Is that a reference too to Kitano’s fans crying out for more of the same?
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