Outrage

Focusing on the absurdly ultraviolent tit-for-tat tussles among a trio of Tokyo crime families, the film is a beautifully staged marvel that confidently reasserts Kitano's considerable cinematic gifts.

His (Takeshi) sense of style is very much in evidence here, and so is his sense of humor.

On the one hand, Outrage suffers from a cold removal from the events portrayed onscreen, mainly a series of arguments and gory acts of retribution. It's often a terrible bore. But the stylish execution renders many moments into imminently watchable pastiche.

Not everything is as elegantly executed, including a tiresome, would-be comic subplot involving an African diplomat and a clandestine casino that drags the story down badly and comes close to noxious racial stereotype.

The filmmaking is cool, watchful, and ultimately too distanced. Outrage isn't outrageous enough, and it hurts.

At its best, Outrage offers a meat-and-potatoes look at an age when battles of honor and humanity are AWOL in yakuza society. As things wind toward the inevitable hierarchical breakdown, however, the movie too often resembles a repetitive cycle of tough guys shouting, shooting and shuffling off this mortal coil.

Outrage is compelling to watch until it becomes exhausting.

It's not nearly as engaging as other Yakuza movies I've seen in the last few years. Sure, there's plenty of violence, some comedy, and creative killing. But it's tough to get behind any of the characters.

I was expecting better things for no particular reason. I felt like a lot of the movie was forced to try and seem a certain way when it only came of as corny. The acting at times was atrocious, or maybe Chinese/ Japanese people have very dramatic facial expressions? Subtitles always ad somewhat of a strain to movies but I still had real trouble connecting or believing much of what was going on. I then began having trouble recalling which people went with which families and why they began to dislike the other, and how it benefited one side or the other. It had a few interesting gory deaths/ beatings but uit became quite repetitive. Overall I felt it was pretty poor, as a lover of most Yakuza/ Mafia movies and felt I had wasted my time watching.