SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL: The first thing you need to know about the new Takeshi Kitano film is that it is a sequel. The original Outrage didn’t play in Australian theatres, but it does have local DVD distribution. It’s a pity that the Sydney Film Festival didn’t consider playing the pair as a double feature or at least as bookend screenings, because those walking into Outrage Beyond cold will experience some confused moments. But don’t let me put you off. In many ways, this is Kitano operating at the peak of his powers as a director. A few years have passed in movie time since Outrage (actually filmed in 2010) but some of the personalities carry over from its predecessor, so it’s inevitable that when names start being bandied about by characters as they discuss the implications of the opening incident, that unprepared audiences will be saying, 'Who?’ The film is actually self-explanatory, but it won’t feel that way until the mayhem is well underway.
this is Kitano operating at the peak of his powers as a director
So because Outrage Beyond doesn’t offer a recap – and the complexities of the plot of Outrage could take up the rest of this review if I let it, let me throw you this morsel: There’s been some strife in the Sanno-kai yakuza clan and multiple shootings between rival gangs has meant that mid-level gangster Otomo (Kitano – billed under his screen persona 'Beat Takeshi’) ended up in the slammer.
At the beginning of Outrage Beyond, a car containing the body of a policeman who’d been working on exposing the Sanno-kai and a mistress with links to the yakuza is fished out of Kobe’s harbour. As an implicated government minister sweats, the ambitious Detective Kataoka (Kohinata Fumiyo) requests the head of Sanno-kai supply a fall guy to make it look like he is cracking down on crime. His request completed, Kataoka also engineers the release of Otomo to spark a gang war with Sanno-kai who are still angry over events in the previous film.
While the first three-quarters of Outrage Beyond is dialogue intensive, its wordy scenes seethe with a resentful fury that lurks behind the yakuza’s corporate-like exterior. Occasionally, events erupt – like a nasty and a distinctive thumb amputation – but for most of the film, Kitano is content to work on building audiences’ anticipations of an all out explosion.
The direction is smooth and clean, even elegant. Many have felt that Kitano’s been wasting the past decade with his self-referential comedies like Takeshis and Glory to the Filmmaker!, but a quick comparison between Outrage Beyond and his 1990s yakuza dramas like Sontaine and Hana-bi, which established Kitano’s international reputation, illustrates that the Japanese filmmaker has sharpened his directing skills considerably in the interim. Kitano’s work is further enhanced by his enlisting of several Japanese acting stalwarts like Nishida Toshiyuki and Kohinata Fumiyo, who showcase the considerable talents they usually fritter away on the generic TV, cell phone novel and manga adaptations that dominate Japanese commercial movies.
In contrast, Kitano gives the usual unreadable non-performance of his yakuza films. Don’t be deceived. He’s not concentrating on his directing or coasting. He’s just setting you up for a powerful finale that packs a wallop.
