BEYOND OUTRAGE (or, as it screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival last year, OUTRAGE BEYOND) has opened in a limited release in the US. This review is edited and expanded from a first reaction festival blog post on empireonline.com
When Takeshi Kitano’s OUTRAGE played in Cannes 2010, I left the cinema underwhelmed. It seemed as though the filmmaker was struggling for fresh ideas, as if he was doing it for the fans but his heart wasn't really in it. With that in mind I approached BEYOND OUTRAGE with caution, but was soon amazed a stonking return to form. Put it this way: I now feel I have to go back and re-watch the first film to make sure it was Takeshi, not myself, who was having a bad day - such is leap in quality (as I remember it) between the two films.
Of course, it's worth bearing in mind that a lot has happened in the world in the three years between OUTRAGE and BEYOND OUTRAGE. Organised crime is a major part of the world's economy, and the deepening of the global financial crisis has rattled a lot of cages, legitimate and otherwise, aloowing a lot of fascinating and yes - often outrageous - events to emerge up to public view.
BEYOND OUTRAGE picks up three years after its predecessor. The Sanno Yakuza syndicate has continued to build on its huge power base, to the point where they have just assassinated a senior political figure. This is a step too far for the police, who give detective Kataoka (Fumiyo Kohinata), a man who is neither completely orthodox nor trustworthy, license to stir the pot and shift the balance of underworld power away from Sanno.
Meanwhile, there are grumblings amongst the gangsters themselves, particularly of younger members being promoted hastily and ‘unfairly’ simply because they bring in more money. At this early stage, it feels like Kitano will start doing what we waited the entire first film for him to do, and examine the Yakuza in the same way that Johnnie To looked at the Triads with his superb ELECTION movies: dealing with tradition and the discipline of honour in changing times, and just who the real crooks are these post-GFC days. Unfortunately, that particular arc isn't explored as completely as I would have liked, but it nonetheless sets BEYOND OUTRAGE hurtling along.
Kataoka has no shortage of dangerous ways to needle the precariously balanced organisation, and many of these fail, until he plays the ace up his sleeve: bringing back the betrayed Otomo (Kitano) seemingly from the dead to exact his revenge in all directions.
As he ages, Kitano only becomes more wonderfully unreadable as an actor, and
Otomo might be the most badass onscreen senior citizen of the decade (and that includes Machete, and the cast of The Expendables). Although BEYOND OUTRAGE ultimately doesn’t quite
deliver on the potential of its first act set-up, there’s enough energy, bite
and trademark Kitano gallows humour to have it sit in the “better than
the first one” column - considerably and comfortably so.