‘Outrage’ is outrageous, bloody and somewhat foolish

With Outrage, writer-director-star Takeshi Kitano has created a gangster movie so ruthless and violent that it feels like one stylized kill after another. Characters in the film knock on doors and then shoot. They shake hands and then shoot. They slurp down some noodles and then shoot. They take a shower and then shoot. No one is to be trusted, and everyone is a suspect.

With such crazed warring factions as the yakuza clans in Outrage, the pools of blood come at the expense of story and characterization. We never really get to know the men behind the guns. We understand they’re part of a larger system with bosses, underbosses and subordinates. But other than rank, this vengeful lot is a bunch of walking-hardly-talking human pistols — mere constructs intended to propel the plot into inevitability. There’s not one iota of positivity about the movie, and not one character shows a good side. Just when the audience is believing someone will come out on top, he’s shot in the head.

Despite all this, Outrage is expertly filmed, and many of the scenes are staged as intricately as a ballet. Bloodletting never looked so unique and visceral. Kitano knows how to grab our throat in the first few seconds and never let go. The movie rides a wave of adrenaline throughout its entire 109 minutes.

The bare-bones story deals with a drug-dealing organization in the Japanese underworld. The top dog is a mysterious guy known as Mr. Chairman. He lives in a palatial estate and frequently slaps his subordinates when they don’t understand his intentions. I was waiting for him to appear with a white cat in his arms. His many bosses on the ground need to keep the money coming in and the competition at bay. Nobody is allowed to sell drugs on the Chairman’s turf, but apparently Murase, a rival to the Chairman, didn’t get the blood-soaked memo.

One thing leads to another, and an all-out war begins among the gangsters, one of which is played by Kitano himself. Alliances are put to the test and characters find themselves double-crossed and sometimes even triple-crossed. Very few people make it out alive.

Perhaps Kitano is trying to show how inane organized crime can be. Not one character in the movie truly understands what’s flaming their violence. Dozens of people need to die just because one simple misunderstanding gets out of hand. These men, all portrayed nicely by the fine cast, are still bullying around the neighborhoods as if they were in high school. In all of their manly superiority there’s an inherent foolishness and pessimism.

The police and government are not innocent bystanders. A top detective is a known associate of the Chairman’s, and a naive ambassador is willing to share his embassy for an illegal yakuza casino (this is where the plot becomes too far-fetched).

Kitano’s style is an interesting blend of Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. He keeps us on the edge of our seat, and sometimes makes us squirm with displays of grotesqueness. There’s one scene where chopsticks are jammed into a person’s ear — a sequence that will likely haunt my nightmares for several nights. What holds back Outrage is not its excessive violence, but the fact that it’s not paired with anything of value. Violence for the sake of violence is a genre bore. Only when the punches, gunfights and blood are tied to an overall invigorating plot does it all make sense.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Outrage: Way of the Yakuza

• In Japanese with English subtitles

• 2011

• Written and directed by Takeshi Kitano

• Starring Beat Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano), Kippei Shiina and Ryo Kase

• Running time: 109 minutes

• Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence throughout, language, a scene of sexuality and some nudity

• Rating: