Outrage Coda [Blu-ray]

Wow, what a film! As always, Takeshi Kitano has proven his talent as a film director as well as an actor 'Beat' Takeshi. As always, it's very violent, but Kitano still managed to show the sadness and the shadowy world of the Japanese gangsters Yakuza.If you're not familiar with the stories and history of Japanese gang organisations yakuza, you might find it slightly confusing at first, so I recommend you read something about them on the internet beforehand. Often they're translated into English as the 'Japanese Mafia', but it's not so simple. They're not family orientated, but instead they're more like a company. In this film, 'Beat' Takeshi is playing a yakuza boss in his organisation, which is part of a larger organisation, which is also under the umbrella of an even greater yakuza organisation, so he'd be about 3rd or 4th levels below the top yakuza president. That's why the Japanese yakuza society is often called 'dynasty', as though the Emperor is on top of the hierarchy and several kings reign their own kingdoms underneath.The squeal to this film is available from other countries like this one  Outrage Beyond (blu-ray) Italian Import , but not yet available in the UK market yet.

Takeshi Kitano's straight-faced black comedy Outrage lives up to its title with the odd moment of extreme violence involving chopsticks, tongues and a bit of improvised dentistry that makes Marathon Man look like a walk in the park, but it's very much Kitano playing it safe on familiar turf, as relentlessly ordinary as it is sporadically violent. Worse, it doesn't have the ability to surprise or subvert expectations that made his reputation with gems like  Sonatine [DVD ]. Instead its stone-faced star, probably the only man to make Buster Keaton look over emotive, goes through the motions of this rise and fall saga that sees his Yakuza lieutenant involved in an escalating series of incidents that turns an attempt by his boss to make a show of contrition by apparently punishing a rival family he's made an unauthorised alliance with turn into a full scale gang war while the city's Yakuza chairman plays everybody off against each other to do a bit of housecleaning of potential rivals.Kitano doesn't glamorise his Yakuza: they're untrustworthy - no sooner is an alliance made than it's broken - ruthless and engaged in a job without much of a future and only the odd moment of fun (mostly at the expense of an African ambassador they blackmail into turning his embassy into a casino). The trouble is that while it's occasionally outrageous and offers the odd subtle bit of corporate satire, it isn't especially funny for a black comedy while as a crime drama it's all very, very familiar. Some have compared it to his badly received  Brother [DVD] [2001 ], but where that felt like a film he really wanted to make, this feels like a business plan. It's solidly made, well cast and watchable enough if you're not squeamish, but it's like Kitano's just going through the motions on autopilot to get a safe commercial hit after more anarchic projects like  Takeshis' [DVD ] and  Glory To The Filmmaker (Import Dvd) (2012) Varios  didn't find much of an audience. In that it's successful, spawning a sequel, Beyond Outrage, but it's certainly not one of his most memorable films by a long shot.Kitano's first scope film, the UK Blu-ray offers an okay but unexceptional 2.35:1 transfer with burned-in unremoveable English subtitles. The only extras are the US trailer and a rather badly transferred 18 minute collection of interviews with the supporting cast that has a surprisingly large number of digital glitches.

Love this film, Outrage Beyond is just as good. Will Takeshi stick to the idea of producing a trilogy, I do hope so. Pity Amazon doesn't have more Takeshi films such as Sonatine, Boiling Point and Violent Cop.Takeshi makes excellent yakusa films and this so stylish and gripping...it's a timeless plotline that could easily be set in feudal Japan. Great, fantastic, watch it.

I went in to this film looking for Yakuza thrills and spills. I got them, and then some.Some people have said it isn't up to Kitano's usual standard, but to my knowledge it has all the right elements: extreme violence, a reasonably complex story and some genuinely laugh out loud moments. I'll admit there isn't much of a heart to it - it wasn't very emotionally involving like 'Hana-bi' or 'Zatoichi', but that hole is filled with a dangerous mixture of tension and blood. So why expect anything more?Kitano himself is totally cool, as usual. The rest of the cast also did a brilliant job.It isn't pretty, and it won't please everyone, but it's worth a look if you like gangster films, or just enjoy Kitano's acting roles.

Great films, but bought this in error, only had German subtitles! Oops, returned with no problems!

The best mafia movie ever.

This is a classic old school Kitano Takeshi Yakuza movie and it is just that. I wasn't expecting the best script or acting and I didn't get it but it gave me everything that I did expect so I gave it a nostalgic top score.

Fans of this genre won't be disappointed so you can expect a fair amount of gore. What I wasn't expecting was the amount of double crossing that takes place. I thought all the characters and actors worked well. Keep your hands in your pocket.