OUTRAGE: THE WAY OF THE YAKUZA – The DVD Review

Review by Sam Moffitt
I have watched a lot of gangster movies in my life, although that particular genre was never my favorite. Monster and horror movies always were and probably always will be that, but I have watched a good many gangster films, and enjoyed them

When I was a kid KPLR-TV, Channel 11 in St. Louis ran all the Warner Brother’s old gangster and film noirs on the weekends. In fact they had so many Bogart pictures for a while they ran Bogart Theatre on Sunday afternoons.

I saw a double bill of Public Enemy and Little Caesar at the Tivoli theater in the early 70’s, a double bill of White Heat and High Sierra at the Naro theatre in Norfolk, Virginia during my time in the Navy in the late 70s. I enjoyed a lot of the new wave of gangster pictures in the 80s and 90s. Just recently I have started watching the French gangster and caper movies from the 60s and 70s and have found that Johnny Hallyday is not only a terrific singer he’s a hell of an actor. Almost nobody does world weary and cynical like the French, except maybe the Japanese.

Which brings me to Outrage: The Way of the Yakuza, written by, directed by and starring Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano, a living legend in Japan who has made quite a few yakuza movies through the years. This was his return to the genre after several unsuccessful films. Outrage is his 15th film as a director.

In the past Kitano has made some amazingly offbeat yakuza films. Sonatine plays with the genre by having a long, slow middle part with no action what so ever in which Kitano and his gang hide out after being banished. When the big show down happens at the end we don’t get to see it, all the violence is off screen. In Brother, Kitano played a yakuza hitman banished to America where, instead of sitting on his ass and watching Wheel of Fortune he organizes the local home boys into a tight, mean money making gang, despite not being able to speak English very well.

I also will always remember Beat as the Sergeant Major in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, a very weird British/Japanese prisoner of war movie and the man in charge of the Battle Royale in the movie of the same name. Beat is a strange looking, sad faced actor. He had a stroke a few years ago, so I’ve heard, which resulted in the right side of his face drooping somewhat, making him look even sadder. Amazingly he is also a popular stand up comic in Japan, whose humor, even he admits, does not translate well into English.

All of which leads me to admit I still was not prepared for Outrage. This is the most cynical, sadistic and depressing gangster movie I have ever seen, and that says a lot. Recounting the ‘plot’ would be useless, Beat himself admits he thought up the killings first, then wrote a ‘story’ to go with it.

In the movie, which starts at a yakuza funeral, appropriately enough, one member is told he made a wrong move by becoming ‘brothers’ with a member of another crime family. He is told to make it right which entails muscling in on that family’s business. From there it is one double cross and betrayal after another. I gave up on keeping a body count after 35 dead, bullet riddled, Japanese actors hit the ground.

This movie may be Beat’s way of finally saying good bye to the yakuza genre. I don’t know how else to explain the complete lack of passion or characterization in the whole project. These guys are not only interchangeable none of them seem to have any fun being gangsters. There is none of the fun times you see in a movie like Goodfellas or even Miller’s Crossing. These guys never seem to enjoy a woman’s company or good liquor or drugs or gambling. No strike that, there is a long casino gambling scene but nobody seems to be having any fun with it, even though if a yakuza gambles in his own house he automatically gets to win! No, these guys reminded me of the speech Al Pacino has in Donnie Brasco about when the hammer is cocked it’s not your worst enemy who whacks you or the cops, it’s your best friend.

These poor sad sacks of shit basically spend all their time betraying each other and killing or getting killed. There is not one sympathetic character in the entire movie and precious little humor. About the only clever touch is an African diplomat who is blackmailed into becoming a yakuza flunky. He and one of the gangsters speak perfect English and have conversations no one except the audience can understand. A little more of that humor would have gone a long way.

In Buddhist terms these guys are in perpetual states of Hell and Hunger. They gleefully push around any body weaker than they are and cringe like whipped dogs to anybody who has more power than they can muster. It is especially pathetic to see Beat’s character grovel in front of ‘The Chairman’ who calls all the shots for these different crime families and betrays each and every one he takes into his confidence.

I started to wonder half way through this why would anyone in their right mind would want to be a yakuza? Your career arc looks to be about 20 minutes in this movie! Being a ‘salaryman’ might be tedious but at least those guys (and women) get to go home at night without being whacked outside their front door.

And of course the killings are particularly brutal and sadistic. In one grueling scene a gangster is having a visit with his dentist. Beat and his minions come into the dentists office, grab the drill and make a wreck of the guy’s mouth and teeth. Later on Beat finishes the job in a steam room.

It is interesting to note in Japan the gangsters keep offices like regular businessmen. I have known a good many Japanese in my life (from practicing Buddhism) who have told me the yakuza are easy to find, they are listed in the phone book and have their own websites! If the reality of yakuza life is anything like this movie, and I have an idea it probably is, I wouldn’t go anywhere near these crews, too much chance of getting caught in the crossfire.
I honestly don’t know if I can recommend this movie or not, it is beautifully photographed, very well acted (even though the actors are not given much to work with) and Beat Takeshi himself is a fascinating character. But Outrage left me drained and depressed, and it takes a movie built way low down to the ground to do that!

Magnolia’s DVD (on their Magnet label) is loaded with extras, a cast interview at 18 minutes, a behind the scenes documentary at 36 minutes, a cast panel interview at 13 minutes, a world premiere Q & A interview at 23 minutes, and a Cannes premiere red carpet interview at 9 minutes. That is a whole lot of talk about a movie that is basically one long body count. Beat is a lot more animated out in public and seems to love meeting his fans. At the Cannes premiere he has to be led away from his fans and told to stop signing autographs! There is also the US trailer, some international trailers and 6 trailers for other Magnet releases. Magnolia/Magnet is a very interesting distributor of mostly independent and foreign films. All the previews on this disc look terrific.