REVIEW: Outrage

Beat Takeshi's Yakuza epic Outrage focuses on an internal war between competing Yakuza families. While they start out with an alliance, things turn grim when earning the respect of the Chairman and they quickly start backstabbing each other for power. Having a love and appreciation for Japanese cinema I do however find that anime and manga culture finds it's way into the film industry ruining some interesting film concepts. Outrage is not one of the films as it's a straight up gangster film that puts a lot of American films to shame. The power struggle and rackets the Yakuza are involved with are explored without going into too much detail. There are a few comedic moments which you can't blame for as the film is pretty grim at times.

It's one of the better Yakuza films I've seen in the last couple of years and if you enjoy crime thrillers this will be up your ally. The body count would make any Martin Scorsese fan happy while not being too graphic. Outrage is worth a rental or buy when it finally hits North American stores.

A-