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Japan 2012
Directed by
Takeshi Kitano
112 minutes
Rated MA


2.5 stars

Beyond Outrage

Takeshi Kitano’s 2010 return to the yakuza thriller Outrage was a bit of a disappointment, lacking the verve of his earlier contributions to the genre such as 2000's Brother. Despite its title, the sequel, Beyond Outrage doesn’t reverse the trend, being essentially more of the same in an overall form that suggests a samurai makeover of The Godfather trilogy as rival crime families, now re-invented as white collar corporations, set out to take each other down.

Set five years after the coup that ended the first film, Kitano again plays Ôtomo who is released from prison thanks to Detective Kataoka in order that he reap revenge on Kato (Tomokazu Miura) the boss of the Sanno family and the man behind the original mayhem. 

Kitano spends a considerable amount of time establishing the new corporate style of the Sanno family which openly does business with the  government before Ôtomo unleashes his old school shoot-and-ask-questions-later approach.  He then he bands with an old foe, Kimura (Hideo Nakano), and with the backing of a rival family, the blood-bath begins.

There’s nothing wrong with Beyond Outrage, it just never attains the level of Kitano's best work.  It takes too long to get going and then unfolds in an unremarkable way, most of the action scenes lacking the Kitano kick. At one point Ôtomo says “I’m getting too old for this shit”. One can’t help but think that Kitano would agree.

DVD Extra: Theatrical trailer

Available from: Madman

 

 

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