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.

dragokin I was surprised to run into Outrage in a fantasy-horror festival, yet there were several gore scenes that clearly qualified the movie for it.Whether you like Takeshi Kitano or not, he sure is good in depicting the yakuza. In the long run this ability got him typecast and he tried to brake the mold in several movies between Brother (2000) and Outrage. For some reason he decided not to pursue his artistic ambition for a while and focus again on Japanese underworld. And this is in no way a step back.The power struggle between the old boss and his right hand is exquisitely depicted. Without it Outrage would be just another crime thriller with extreme scenes of violence.

McCamyTaylor I sat down to watch this film knowing that it would be violent and stylishly directed, because I know the director's work. I did not expect it to make me laugh out loud. But the opening, with the yakuza in their black suits and in their black Mercedes trying so hard to pretend to be something they are not (respectable businessmen) was downright funny. I knew right away that this would not be a glorification of organized crime (as so many yakuza movies are.) The mobsters in this one are stupid, greedy, vile tempered. The ending was completely predictable, if you paid attention, and it was strangely satisfying. Not sure why a sequel is coming out.

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.