Autoreiji: Biyondo (2012) Reviews

• Outrage Beyond

  RokurotaMakabe2013-05-16

  With Outrage, Takeshi Kitano returned to his filmmaking roots and he did not disappoint, bringing to the audience one of his signature yakuza movies. Its follow-up, Outrage Beyond offers more of the same as it focuses on a larger scale conflict this time, a conflict that is the direct result of the events in the first film. The action here revolves around Takeshi Kitano's Otomo and the way his actions lead to a war between two rival yakuza gangs. We find out that Otomo is alive and well, but still in prison after surviving the aftermath of the bloodbath in the first film. His premature release from prison leads to tensions between the two organizations and the apparent peace between them is disrupted. Thus the fight for power begins and the conflict is spiced up by the involvement of a police detective who has interests of his own, all leading to an explosive finale. The film does not fail to deliver, although it is not in the same class as some of Takeshi's other yakuza efforts. It represents an improvement on Outrage in terms of storytelling, there is less focus on old school action and more emphasis is put on the conflict between the characters, which is a good thing since it adds more dimension to the story. The characters themselves are well developed and the acting is what you would expect. On the other hand, the film lacks some creativity and some artistic touch in order to be truly great. All the elements of a Kitano film are here, but they do not stand out as much as they should, even his trademark deadpan humor is served in smaller doses. All things aside, the film is good in its own right and the only reason for it not being on par with Takeshi's best efforts is because those films have set such a high standard. While it does not break any new ground, Outrage Beyond is an entertaining film to watch whether you are a fan of the genre or not and it represents a good addition to Takeshi Kitano's filmography.

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• Gritty Crime Cinema

  axion82013-06-10

  I was waiting for a while to see this film and was totally shocked to find out there was a sequel to it's 2010 predecessor. The 2nd instalment is more composed and deals with the politics and characters on a much deeper level. After watching it I am curious as to if this was one screen play cut into 2 films, or, if Tekeshi and co decided to write another script after the original. Outrage Beyond is a solid piece of crime cinema. The themes of corruption, loyalty, redemption and honour are explored on multiple levels. I loved the cinematography and was really impressed with the solid performances throughout the film. My pick of a great bunch was Tomokazu Miura's portrayal of the aged and weary "Kato". The ending solidified this Kitano outing as a classic. Great film.

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• Growing pains in the yakuza family structures.

  suite922014-05-05

  The film is set five years after the action in Outrage ended. The utterly corrupt Detective Kataoka is still in place, perhaps more entrenched than ever. Detective Shigeta, a somewhat more straight arrow policeman, accompanies Kataoka on some of his tasks. Kato is still the Chairman of the Sanno family. Ishihara, formerly in Otomo's clan, is now Kato's underboss. Sanno has grown considerably in wealth and power, partly because they absorbed Murase's drug business from the first film. Other shifts in the Sanno family are placement of older executives by younger ones, and valuing acquiring money over muscling other families. As the story begins, there is plenty of fuel in the powder keg: the old guard resent the younger upstarts; when one family expands, others just might feel threatened; the cops have decided to squeeze Sanno growth. In the film's opening sequence, the police lift a car out of the water. Kataoka and Shigeta arrive, so one knows there is a yakuza connection. One of the bodies is that of a high government official, and evidence points to the Sanno family issuing the hit order. The police see that Sanno thinks its money is sufficient to buy enough protection for them to openly order the killing of a government official. This seems to be too much to bear. Kataoka sets about riling up the yakuza against each other. He encourages one of the old guard in the Sanno family (and two of his followers) to attempt to unseat and replace Underboss Ishihara. He arranges a meeting with Fuse, the Chairman of the Hanabishi family. That seems to go well, but when the trio report back to Kato, they find that Fuse had described the whole situation to Kato. Fatalities ensue. Resentment increases. Kataoka gets schooled by his superior: did he not know that the Sanno and the Hanabishi were secretly allied? To get the pot boiling even harder, Kataoka arranges for the release of Otomo, whom Kimura (released years before) shanked in prison. Kataoka had misled many (such as Chairman Kato) into thinking Otomo was dead. Now the detective brings him forth to heat things up. Kataoka arranges a meeting between Kimura and Otomo, which goes surprisingly well. Also, he nudges them toward 'helping' the alliance between Hanabishi and Sanno to fail magnificently. That is most of the early context of the film. How goes the execution? Quite well, I would say. -----Scores----- Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent, professional. Sound: 8/10 No particular problems, but them again, I was following the sub-titles. Acting: 10/10 Even better than the original. Screenplay: 8/10 Nice story development. Not as many plot points as the original, but easier to follow.

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• A Nutshell Review: Outrage Beyond

  DICK STEEL2013-03-09

  In Takeshi Kitano's Outrage, we sat through some heavy plotting and counter-schemes where every one, a collective of Yakuzas and gangsters, is a bad guy, fighting over power and control when being unwittingly manipulated, together with shifting alliances. The story was pretty brilliant then, since you're really unsure how the concocted plans would turn out, suffice to say it boiled down to very violent affairs, with plenty of firearm action all round. But Kitano kept his direction well balanced then, as he does so again now, with dramatic scenes happening in the first half of the film, followed by a build up to various violent crescendos in the latter half. We continue where we last left off, where the victors of the first film's schemes, Kato (Tomokazu Miura) and the Otomo Clan turncoat Ishihara (Ryo Kase) return to the top of the food chain, grabbing control over the Sanno-kai crime organization, although not without their detractors from within who will jump at every seductive, suggested opportunity to usurp the throne. It didn't help that their leadership style, parallel to some real world techniques of cost cutting stinginess, doesn't cut it through the rank and file. And you just can't put a good man down, or a bad man in this case, with Beat Takeshi's Otomo returning to the mayhem as orchestrated by Detective Kataoka (Fumiyo Kohinata). Wait a minute, didn't we witness his key scene in the finale of Outrage? I suppose if one is at the creative helm of the film - directing, writing and editing - then anything's possible. Otomo, as it turns out, is still sitting pretty in prison, but has his enemies quaking in their shoes when rumours got squashed, and Kataoka accelerates Otomo's parole to get him released and back in the fray. With preference for a lowly life amongst the hood, it is genre mantra that one never walks away, but gets pulled back into the hustle and bustle of vengeance and violence. Between the two films, perhaps I will have to throw my hat of preference over to the first one, if only for a plot that involved a lot more stakeholders, and on screen violence that was more balletic than this follow up's rather tame, and usually off-screen mayhem. Sometimes we get to see flashes from muzzles, compensated by the awesomely rendered loud sounds of multiple rounds leaving the chamber of the gun. And stylistically, which is a fair counter- point to the explicitness of what Hollywood does today, we find ourselves staring down barrels of guns on screen, before cutting to the aftermath. When put together, while the films touches on tit-for-tat revenge, and perhaps contain a shade of real world organizational politics given the structure of the Yakuza, not only do we get to compare leadership styles and skills of those at the top, but rather how one should be aware of the little man running around, stirring trouble only for personal benefit. Fumiyo Kohinata steals the show each time he comes on screen as the corrupt Detective Kataoka, on the payroll of the force and striving to go up in his career ladder, while on the take from the clans, yet at the same time scheming against all to advance his personal agenda at both sides of the law. I had nothing but chuckles especially during an interrogation scene which Kataoka engineers, which probably cuts a little close to home given the series of gaffes in high profile court cases that didn't quite put the Home Team in good light. And characters like Kataoka, are not hard to imagine nor stranger than fiction. His opposite would be the ramrod straight Shigeta, who for all his righteousness, couldn't influence the corruption going on in his face, as executed in arrogant style by his counterpart. It's really Kataoka's show from the get go, being the key character, and catalyst in almost all twists and turns, with Fumiyo Kohinata being the quintessential villain amongst all villains here.

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• I write about it, i talk about it, i dream about it... this sequel is the tits

  willson_x2013-11-07

  A lot of people seem to be hesitant to put that this is one of the all time great sequels to a movie, ever. It's up there with the Lord Of The Rings, the Toy Story, the Godfather, whatever you consider the best (Alien?) trilogy. What it is, is that it's the perfect sequel to the first film and its complex, meaty character/story web. It compliments it and enhances it in every way, it's not just "Annuva' sequel". It's *BETTER* -Guarantee included. The story starts like if you're reading the be-all-end-all of crime dramas in bed, and you've turned the page, fueled with adrenaline and no thought for your sleep pattern. OK, so Takeshi Kitano's character died in the last film, right? He's on the cover of the damn box, but let's pretend you can't put 1+1 together: he's dead, the gangsters lost their boss, tensions are high... unfortunately they stay high the whole movie, unfortunately for them, trapped inside the screen. Fortunately for us, the nail biting tension is strung high, like a tightrope, and we are being tickled along. The emptiness of the camera is like the sinking hole below you as you cross this suspended wire. Look, do you want me to say any more? Just go see the movie, if you haven't seen the 1st installment, go see that. You will watch the next one straight away. There is no third chunk to call it a trilogy, so you'll have to make do. Now go watch it before the magic of word of mouth fades off and you watch the next bullshit Hollywood film starring Emma Watson or some pretentious looker that acts as well as a zombie, freshly resurrected from a Haitian cemetery by Baron Samedi. Keep it vanguard, people.

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