Christopher Webster [Film Festival 10.25.10] movie review thriller



Year: 2010
Directors: Takeshi Kitano
Writers: Takeshi Kitano
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Corridorstyle
Rating: 7 out of 10

The return of ´Beat´ Takeshi to the Yakuza genre, his first since 2000´s Brother, has been viewed as something of a big deal following on from disappointing recent films. With that in mind, an expectant crowd packed The Auditori Cinema in Sitges and a large round of cheers and applause greeted the opening credits.

What followed was a huge return to form for Kitano. ´Outrage´ tells the story of a mid-level Yakuza underboss, Otumo (Kitano), who is asked by his boss Ikemoto to unsettle a rival called Murase, as the Chairman is not happy with the strong relationship between Ikemoto and Murase. The problem is that Ikemoto and Murase are ´sworn brothers´and therefore Ikemoto cannot be seen to be making a move on Murase, and what follows is a story of back-stabbing, manipulation and half-truths.

A complex study of the political side of the Yakuza, it manages to avoid getting bogged down in showing the hierarchy, whilst at the same time using it´s structure to show the mistrust, betrayal and naked ambition that run rife through the organisation. At times it resembled Shakesperean plays such as Macbeth or Julius Caesar, whilst also following similar themes to western Gangster classics like The Godfather.


Essentially a story of how violence gives birth to violence and more often than not spirals out of control, it´s been unfairly written off by other reviewers as purely violence with no real story or plot. Ultimately, these organisations trade on violence and whilst Kitano doesn´t flinch when he needs so show the violent side of business, nothing is ever done gratuitously.

It´s a great looking, well paced film and great performances from Kippei Shiina as Otumo´s second in command Mizuno and also Tomokazu Miura as overboss Kato, meant that the general feeling amongst the Sitges crowd was a hearty thumbs up.

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Anonymous (12 years ago) Reply

this is probably the worst review i've ever read on this site.

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