People are voting emotionally.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This film is about warring clans within a larger yakuza community. Mr. Chairman is the current overall leader; Ikemoto is one of his vassals. Ikemoto, however, has started an alliance with the Murase family, which deals drugs. Mr. Chairman is old school, and does not like trading in drugs. The protagonist, Otomo, is a vassal of Ikemoto, but is a sworn brother of Murase. Mr. Chairman charges Otomo with breaking this alliance by moving against Murase. Otomo is reminded rather strongly that his loyalty to Mr. Chairman should outweigh his brotherhood to Murase.In the meantime, Detective Kataoka of the Organized Crime Unit keeps getting paid off by Otomo. Kataoka gives Otomo intelligence that keeps the police off Otomo's back.Otomo sends an underling to let one of Murase's lieutenants cheat him out of 1 million yen. When the lieutenant arrives at Otomo offices, he sees that the Otomo group is vassal to the Ikemoto family, and begs to skip receiving the payment. Otomo's people insist. Word gets back to Murase, who phones Otomo immediately. Otomo accepts money and a finger and an apology from Murase's under boss, Kimura. The Ikemotos demand a finger from the under boss for the insult.As one might imagine, there was a lot of hurt pride. That, coupled with mistakes by underlings, ignites an escalating set of reprisals. Alliances shift. Ikemoto wants to keep the skim of the drug money, for instance, despite all the thunder coming down from Mr. Chairman.Otomo tries to keep his standing with Mr. Chairman sound, but it is not easy; nor is keeping his sworn brotherhood with Murase. Mr. Chairman makes it worse by demanding reprisals.-----Scores-----Cinematography: 10/10 Beautifully shot using excellent equipment.Sound: 7/10 Moot; I read the subtitles. The background music was good, and the actors seemed to be well miked.Acting: 8/10 All the actors were rather good. Gladly, the ones with the most screen time were the best.Screenplay: 7/10 As a move-forward all-the-time action film, this was great. However, I could have used a bit more exposition of motivation. The film made more sense the second time I watched it, but was still a little unclear.

After a series of somewhat more experimental and introspective films Takeshi Kitano is back to his familiar yakuza subject matter, this time with some adjustments.Outrage is set in the deepest end of the yakuza world, the opening scenes drop us at the table of a formal yakuza meeting introducing us to those who hold power and those who receive orders. It's at this meeting that comes the first move in a long violent game of deceit and revenge with many players striving for their piece of the action. The numerous characters we're involved with and intertwining plot means Outrage requires our full attention, but it very much deserves it.Outrage looks crisp and each shot is beautifully framed something that delivers the trademark Kitano violence in an even more visceral and in many cases haunting way(the ol' yakuza finger chopping).With this Kitano juxtaposes violence with scenes of calm and collected formal yakuza meetings or conversations of further scheming. We're given brief moments to piece the puzzles together before we are thrown back into the fire. Kitano's ruthlessness does prove at times a little frustrating, it seems with some of the supporting characters as soon as we begin to like them or take their side - something we're not forced into, their death is right around the corner, however this works in Kitano's favour highlighting just how much violent deceit and backstabbing is really going on in this yakuza world.With Outrage Kitano is more restrained in some areas, for example the music is very minimal(as opposed to a pronounced score from Joe Hisaishi(Sonatine,Dolls))and part of the background.As well as this there aren't any abstract messages here, or even any weirdness at all something many have come to expect from Kitano, but in this case there doesn't need to be any, Outrage is already bursting with story and characters. Despite the lack of weird Kitano still has his fun, and a great scene involves reference to the Senator Pat Geary blackmail from Godfather 2.One area Kitano didn't seem to show as much restraint in is with the sheer amount of story we're exposed to at once.There are simply so many characters interacting it can feel that as an audience we're dealing with too much at once, even if it is fun. Perhaps if we were dealing with less characters we wouldn't get a sense of the yakuza world as a whole, but the movie would feel less like its always about to burst.Overall Outrage is a complicated story with a rather simple point: to highlight the irony that there exists honor in the yakuza world, where deceit is everywhere, and even a pact over sake can be broken, power is everything and honor is something for those who can be used. While the characters aren't as developed as other similar films it still works in Outrage, as we're taking a look into the entire yakuza world, its politics, how it runs, and where it fails. Outrage is a beautifully crafted example of a deeply complex gangster film that holds it own against films like Infernal Affairs and Election. 7.5/10

I am a big fan of Asian action films, especially Hong Kong shoot 'em uppers and Thai martial arts flicks, but for some reason I can never follow what is happening in some Janpanese films, especially in Takeshi Kitano's films. I'm always left confused about who is who and why things are happening and what the story is even about.I really don't like American remakes of foreign films and think it's just a waste of money to have re-shot The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in English, for example, when the original could have simply been given wider distribution. But in the case of Outrage, I do hope it gets remade, because for some reason as it is the story just doesn't translate well with me. It was the same for me with Infernal Affairs; I thought The Departed was a much better film and I understood what was going on a lot more.I know there is some subtle, humorous force at play in Outrage, sort of like Clint Eastwood playing the gangs against each other in A Fistful Of Dollars, but sorry, I don't know why the cook gets a set of chopsticks jammed into his ear, don't know why one of the bosses gets his mouth chewed up with a dental instrument, have no idea who it is that is getting his neck tied to a pole and then gets ripped out of a moving car, but more importantly, why all of this is happening.I sort of understand that the big boss wants to pit the two families against each other, but I still don't understand why or what that accomplishes or who is the guy in the very last scene who is called an a-hole. And I have found this confusion to be the case with all the Takeshi Kitano movies that I have seen.It's not that I can't follow subtitles. I'm a huge fan of John Woo and can follow his films just fine. It's just that the moody, arty, deadpan Kitano style just doesn't translate well for me and for some reason I can't distinguish between characters, which is really annoying when a film is shot in choppy, short scenes where if you aren't immediately clear about who is who, stuff happens fast and is gone within seconds. So as you can see, I'm not that big of a fan of Takeshi Kitano.

"When Mr. Murase and I were in prison together we made a pact over saké." After the head of a Yakuza family learns of his henchman's betrayal to a drug dealing family he starts a war that changes everything. This is a very good movie that is equal parts tense, bloody and dramatic. The only problem is that the flow seems off. Going from scenes of murder and finger cutting to long sequences of nothing happening makes it hard to get fully engrossed. On the other hand it is also a movie that forces you to keep watching in order to find out which family will ultimately win out. I did enjoy this but this is not a movie for everyone. A movie with no real good guy and leaves you watching not sure who to root for. I like movies like that. Overall, a good but slow movie that is almost an updated Japanese Godfather. I give it a B.