20140505: Action Review--Beyond Outrage

Beyond Outrage

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, 112 minutes, action, crime,
2. IMDB: 6.8/10.0 from 2,012 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 50% on the meter, but no consensus yet; 58% liked it from 537 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.6/5.0 from 21,027 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Takeshi Kitano.
6. Starring: Takeshi Kitano as Otomo, Toshiyuki Nishida as Underboss Nishino, Tomokazu Miura as Chairman Kato, Ryo Kase as Underboss Ishihara, Hideo Nakana as Kimura, Yutaka Matsushiga as Detective Shigeta, Fumiyo Kohinata as Detective Kataoka, Shigero Koyama as Fuse.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film is set five years after the action in Outrage ended.  The utterly corrupt Detective Kataoka is still in place, perhaps more entrenched than ever.  Detective Shigeta, a somewhat more straight arrow policeman, accompanies Kataoka on some of his tasks.  Kato is still the Chairman of the Sanno family.  Ishihara, formerly in Otomo's clan, is now Kato's underboss.  Sanno has grown considerably in wealth and power, partly because they absorbed Murase's drug business from the first film.  Other shifts in the Sanno family are placement of older executives by younger ones, and valuing acquiring money over muscling other families.  As the story begins, there is plenty of fuel in the powder keg: the old guard resent the younger upstarts; when one family expands, others just might feel threatened; the cops have decided to squeeze Sanno growth.


2. In the film's opening sequence, the police lift a car out of the water.  Kataoka and Shigeta arrive, so one knows there is a yakuza connection.  One of the bodies is that of a high government official, and evidence points to the Sanno family issuing the hit order.  The police see that Sanno thinks its money is sufficient to buy enough protection for them to openly order the killing of a government official.  This seems to be too much to bear.


3. Kataoka sets about riling up the yakuza against each other.  He encourages one of the old guard in the Sanno family (and two of his followers) to attempt to unseat and replace Underboss Ishihara.  He arranges a meeting with Fuse, the Chairman of the Hanabishi family.  That seems to go well, but when the trio report back to Kato, they find that Fuse had described the whole situation to Kato.  Fatalities ensue.  Resentment increases.  Kataoka gets schooled by his superior: did he not know that the Sanno and the Hanabishi were secretly allied?


4. To get the pot boiling even harder, Kataoka arranges for the release of Otomo, whom Kimura (released years before) shanked in prison.  Kataoka had misled many (such as Chairman Kato) into thinking Otomo was dead.  Now the detective brings him forth to heat things up.


5. Kataoka arranges a meeting between Kimura and Otomo, which goes surprisingly well.  Also, he nudges them toward 'helping' the alliance between Hanabishi and Sanno to fail magnificently.


6. That is most of the early context of the film.  How goes the execution?  Quite well, I would say.


3. Conclusions
1. I would recommend seeing this film to anyone who has seen all of the first one.
2. The exposition of motivations was much better.  I could see easily why the houses were at war with each other, and why individual alliances formed and broke.
3. One line summary: Growing pains in the yakuza family structures.
4. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent, professional.


2. Sound: 8/10 No particular problems, but them again, I was following the sub-titles.


3. Acting: 10/10 Even better than the original.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Nice story development.  Not as many plot points as the original, but easier to follow.