The
Sanno Yakuza clan has practically become Japan Inc through the shrewd investment
strategies of turncoat underboss Ishihara.
His rise to power was ruthless, as the scars of a handful of surviving
foes attest. Lead actor-director Takeshi
Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi) gives a grateful world another dose of Yakuza badassery
with Outrage Beyond (trailer here), the more
restrained sequel to last year’s Outrage,
which screens as a midnight selection of the 50th New York Film Festival.
If
they know what’s good for them, viewers will be fully aware the last time we
saw Kitano’s ultra-hardboiled Otomo, he was on the business end of a rather
fatal looking prison attack. However, it
will take more than a shiv in the yard to dispatch a hardnose like Otomo. Things are looking up as OB opens. Otomo is about to
get an early parole thanks to the scheming of the contemptible Det.
Kataoka. By kicking Otomo loose, the
crooked cop hopes the gangster will do what he does best. If nothing else, it is sure to alarm Ishihara.
Not
proud of the things he was ordered to do in Outrage
1, Otomo is reluctant to get back in the game. Yet, he is convinced by an unlikely new ally,
Kimura, the man on the other end of the shiv.
Frankly, Otomo does not blame him.
He was the one who permanently scarred his former rival’s face. Rather put out by the way their former bosses
manipulated them, Otomo and Kimura agree to Kataoka’s dodgy plan to wage war
against the Sanno, with the suspect backing of the Hanabishi clan. Of course, it gets way more complicated than
that.
Kitano
is still the Miles Davis of Yakuza movies.
Nobody else is so rivetingly stone cold cool, while saying so little. Once again, his shark-like relentlessness and
knowing resignation are wholly sufficient to carry the film on his shoulders. OB is
far less action-driven than its predecessor, but it nicely matches the
world-weariness of its protagonists.
Still, the opening act is a bit talky and heavy on the exposition. Nonetheless, the intriguing relationship
between Kitano’s Otomo and Hideo Nakano’s Kimura, putting the honor back into
the underworld, elevates the second Outrage
above the Yakuza field.
While
Kitano is the definitive star of the film and possibly the entire genre, he has
some colorful support from the overwhelmingly male dominated cast. As Kataoka, Fumiyo Kohinata is still a
hissably audience-pleasing sleazebag.
Coming more to the fore in OB, Ryo
Kase also takes a heck of a villainous turn as the oily, borderline psychotic
Ishihara.
