Outrage

With Outrage, Takeshi Kitano returns to the yakuza crime genre after an hiatus of ten years, his last contribution  being Brother in 2000. It is a film that will please his fans insofar as it manifests the director’s signature style  - the existential world weariness,  mordant humour, and graphic violence – but it also disappoints somewhat as Kitano, so often impressively inventive, not only does nothing new with his material, but his methodical account of internecine battles between Yakuza families is dramatically flat and predictable.

It takes a while to get a handle on who is who in the warring factions but the nub of the matter is that Kitano plays Ôtomo, a Yakuza enforcer for the Ikemoto family who are warring with the Murase family, while their common boss Sekiuchi plays one against the other. The main problem with Kitano’s approach, or at least this is how it struck me, is this gang warring is left to unfold in a Punch and Judy fashion: the Murase gang insults the Ikemoto family, who insult the Murase family who insults the Ikemoto family in an escalating sequence of violent acts. Perhaps if you find the underlying values - loyalty, duty, the need to save face, etc. - that drive the essentially pointless confrontations to be of interest, and I imagine this would apply to Takeshi’s domestic audience, Outrage will appeal for its rigorously matter-of-fact approach to the ever-increasing murderousness. But the film has none of the clever pacing that say Quentin Tarantino’s film of violent attrition, Reservoir Dogs, had or the shock values of Kitano’s earlier yakuza films – you’ve simply seen it all before and the most you can do is wait for the moment when the characteristically impassive Ôtomo snaps.

It is not surprising that the film did not get a theatrical release in Australia. Outrage is probably best appreciated as Kitano's ironically deadpan homage to his own work rather than a film to be taken in itself.

 

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