Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

suite92 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.

karmaswimswami "Outrage" doesn't aspire to Olympian numinal storytelling but in fact is a great yarn of retribution, counter-retribution, double- and triple- crossing, and criminal intrigue lending itself to considerable contemplation. On display here is a really profound emotional range, from poised Japanese restraint to some of the most boorish, angry, testosterone-fueled behavior even lensed, with violence in spades though mostly befalling characters that have been developed such that the spatter is never gratuitous nor comic-book. "Outrage" is meticulously cinematographed, and lensmen that use the screen and light the scene as well as is on view here will never be common. What especially appeals here is a perception that while many western films tantamount to "Outrage" have very powerful men doing very rotten things set in motion by a gesture or a muttering, "Outrage" has lions that roar, get enraged and curse and beat their chests, and it is actually refreshing to see tyrants behaving badly in plain view instead of their badness being inferred. Kitano has the makings of a franchise here, and this is a fine effort.

chicagopoetry 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.

Jim Becker This is a well-done gangster film, suspenseful, never-boring and convincingly acted. At first the story seemed very confusing and I thought I wouldn't be able to figure it out. But soon it becomes (mostly) clear that this is a power struggle between rival gangs and rivals within the gangs. I lived in Japan for 4 years and while I never had any dealings with the yakuza, everything in the film seems convincing and in character with Japanese culture. As for the title of this review, the film is also incredibly bloody. There were 3 or 4 scenes when I had to cover my eyes, I just couldn't watch. I'm not big on horror films or violence in general but I'm also not a prude. In contrast to movies like Kill Bill where the violence is almost cartoonish, this film's violence seems very realistic which makes it hard-to-watch. It's not a reason not to see the film: in fact in some ways the violence serves to make the film more powerful. But if you just hate violence or can't stand seeing some blood, then this is not the film for you . As for me, I very much enjoyed it.