Outrage Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Outrage Blu-ray Movie Review

Beat Takeshi’s outrageous return to the yakuza movie.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater January 30, 2012

Actor, director, comedian, and all-around entertainment badass “Beat” Takeshi Kitano has been gone far too long from the genre he’s best known for: the yakuza film. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, with Violent Cop, Boiling Point, and especially Sonatine--which gave him an international fan base--Kitano took the proverbial mantel from Seijun Suzuki and Kinji Fukasaku and became Japan’s premiere director of hard-hitting crime dramas. However, after the relative disappointment of his Y2K yakuza-meets-mafia movie, Brother--which was filmed in Los Angeles and intended to give him a wider U.S. audience--Kitano switched directorial directions with the lovelorn, death-obsessed Dolls, and then Zatōichi, his revival of the famed blind-swordsman film and television series. The real change, though, came with 2005’s Takeshis’, which began a trilogy of surreal, loosely autobiographical films that go down a rabbit hole into the weirder regions of Beat’s psyche. But now he’s back. Outrage is Kitano’s first real crime film in a decade, and it’s a lean, mean one, circling around the murky moral code of the yakuza, where loyalty and honor can be exploited for control and revenge.

"Beat" is back...

The film opens on a swanky compound where a vaguely Kim-Jong Il-ish mob honcho known only as Mr. Chairman (Soichiro Kitamura)--who rocks the former dictator’s ridiculous aviator glasses/jumpsuit fashion combo--has gathered together his various subordinates in the Sanno-kai crime syndicate for some strategizing and fealty-swearing. He takes particular issue with the fact that one of his underling bosses, Ikemoto (Jun Kunimura), has made an unauthorized “brother” pact with Murase (Renji Ishibashi), a rival gang leader outside of the Sanno-kai umbrella. Urged to find some reason to terminate this allegiance, Ikemoto turns to his own underboss, Otomo--Takeshi Kitano as his typically wry, stoic on-screen persona--who’s the guy you go to when dirty work needs done. The trick is to sever the Ikemoto/Murase tie in a way that makes it look like the falling out is entirely Murase’s fault--already honor is going out the window--and to that end Otomo orchestrates a dispute involving a hostess bar, an unpaid bill, an an easily-duped Murase lackey, who inadvertently embarrasses his superiors. What no one foresees--except, perhaps, Mr. Chairman--is that this incident will spark a cycle of betrayal and escalating tit-for-tat retribution that, like all violence, has no logical end point.

And make no mistake; Outrage is exceptionally, almost gleefully violent. In interviews included on the film’s Blu-ray release, Kitano reveals that he meant this film to be pure entertainment, and that he structured the story around fresh ideas for ways to kill or torture the characters. Mission accomplished. You could make a drinking game out of the number of times Outrage will make you audibly wince. Cooking chopstick to the ear? Box cutter to the face? Try not to jolt in your seat when one poor soul gets uppercutted in the chin after being forced at gunpoint to stick out his tongue. And if you can make it without squirming through the gory, drill-happy scene in the dentist’s office--a scene that defiantly ups Marathon Man’s ante--you deserve some sort of prize for being completely desensitized to oral hygiene-based horror. (I actually had a cavity filled this morning, and I couldn’t get the scene out of my head.) Even the gunshot kills--the old standby in these kinds of films--are executed with a shocking cold-bloodedness.

That same sense of stark, cool detachment--remorseless, minimalist, deadly--informs the entire film. And it’s a good thing too, considering how cluttered the story is otherwise. If Kitano’s visual style was more overbearing, or his editing more frenetic, Outrage would probably be an unwatchably hot mess, a jumble of inscrutable motivations and snaking, knotted plot lines. As it stands, the narrative is somewhat confusing and needlessly complicated, especially when the film veers into a borderline unintentionally racist subplot about an African diplomat who gets pulled into the the yakuza’s corrupt circle. It’s hard to keep track of the characters’ names, let alone who-wants-to-do-what-to-whom, and the endless vendettas and revenge killings and sheer chaos can be overwhelming while also feeling inconsequential. But the pointlessness is partially the point, I guess. Kitano shows how these new breeds of thugs are a far cry from the “old yakuza,” who followed a strict moral code handed down from the samurai days. All that’s left of that code is an allegiance to an outdated, feudal-like hierarchy in the ranks, and even that is coming undone. There’s no more honor among thieves.

It’s interesting to see Kitano doubling back to the genre that made him internationally famous after a decade of artier and funnier fare. Just like in his film Takeshis’--where the famous “Beat” Takeshi meets his look-alike, the unsuccessful, unknown Mr. Kitano--it seems there are two versions of the actor/director. There’s the imaginative softie who can make a somber poem like Dolls or a loveably oddball family comedy like Kikujiro--maybe my favorite of his films--and then the hardcore badass with a stony face and a steely gaze who plugs his enemies full of lead in Outrage. I’m not quite sure which I like more, but he’s almost equally adept at both. Outrage isn’t as clean and powerful as Sonatine, but it’s a welcome return to form and it gives fans of the darker Kitano exactly what they want--a bloody good time.

Outrage Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There's nothing outrageous about Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer of the film, and I mean that in a good way. This is a sharp, colorful, no-frills presentation that's clean and true to source. Outrage was shot on a fairly fine-grained 35mm film stock, and the the image looks entirely natural here, with no signs of heavy-handed noise reduction, filtering, or edge enhancement. (And, as you'd expect from this recent of a film, the print is in perfectly spotless condition.) The level of clarity is excellent. Of course, this is most noticeable in closeups--where suit jacket fabrics, gun detail, and facial features are all strongly defined--but even longer shots reveal crisp lines and fine textures. (There were actually a few shots where the detail in tight parallel lines was so apparent that I was surprised it wasn't causing a moiré pattern.) The image is densely colored too, with a slightly warm cast that bronzes skin tones and gives a creamy quality to the highlights. It looks wonderful. Black levels are deep but avoid crushing unnecessary shadow detail, and the the contrast is even-keeled, striking the ideal balance between flat and unnaturally punchy. Finally, sitting with room to spare on a dual-layer, 50 GB disc, compression issues aren't a concern at all. I really have nothing negative to say here.

Outrage Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Magnolia has given Outrage a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that's dynamically solid and decently immersive. This is the sort of audio experience where you're perpetually aware of the light ambience in the rear channels--in this case, most typically, a windy outdoor hush mixed with light traffic sounds. Of course, as a guns a'blazing, fists a'flying yakuza film, you can also expect some hefty effects during the fight scenes and shootouts, both from the front channels and blasting out of the rears. Some of the punches and body blows can sound a bit stocky and sound library-ish, for the lack of a better term, but the gunshots are deadly potent--often punching through the soundfield with directional precision--and the tension is usually underscored by a low, LFE rumble. To give you some idea of how potent the bass can be, I had a few random Blu-ray cases stacked on my subwoofer while I was watching the film, and at some point they vibrated off the top and crashed onto the floor, terrifying my cat. Keiichi Suzuki's score isn't quite as iconic as the music in some of Kitano's earlier films, but it sounds great here and complements the ongoing violence well. There are a few brief moments where voices sound a hair low in the mix, but otherwise the dialogue is clean and balanced, requiring minimal volume adjustments. The disc includes optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles.

Outrage Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cast Interview - Making Outrage (1080p, 18:52): All of the main actors in the film say a few words about their characters, the shoot, and working with Takeshi Kitano. Speaking of, look out for a quick shot of Beat wearing a total Cosby sweater on set.
• Outrage Inside Out (SD, 36:59): A nearly forty-minute behind-the-scenes documentary that's composed entirely of raw, on-set footage, periodically broken up by short interviews with the cast. It's a bit slow, but worth skimming through if you're curious about Kitano's shooting methods.
• Cast Panel Interview (SD, 13:47): Kitano and three of the film's stars field questions about the the production and their characters.
• Premiere Q&A (SD, 24:04): All of the primary cast members showed up for the film's Shinjuku premiere and came onstage afterward to introduce themselves and talk about the honor of working with Kitano.
• Cannes "Red Carpet" Premiere with Takeshi Kitano (SD, 9:18): A camera follows Kitano around at Cannes, where he walks the red carpet and takes part in a few short interviews.
• U.S. Trailer (1080p, 1:53)
• International TV Spots (1080p, 1:35)
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray (1080p, 8:52): Includes trailers for Point Blank, Blackthorn, I Melt With You, and Melancholia, along with a promo for HDNet.

Outrage Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Beat" Takeshi's return to the yakuza genre doesn't quite reach the highs of his earlier crime films--its circle-of-violence plot can get a bit repetitive--but it is brutal and beautifully shot, and it will certainly appeal to all gangster movie fans. The film was decently successful in Japan and Kitano is prepping to put out Outrage 2 this year, so here's to hoping Magnolia can snag the U.S. rights for the Blu-ray version of the sequel. If it's anything like part one--which features a gorgeous high definition image, lossless audio, and plenty of extras--it'll come easily recommended.