Yes, plot-wise this one was a let down to me. However, i have my own theory regarding the motivation of Takeshi. I pondered what his point was (at first this movie felt cold and pointless to me), and once i had a moment of "satori" it all made more sense to me.
In my opinion, Takeshi's Outrage is a total deconstruction of the Yakuza/Mafia mythos. Very often in movies set in organized crime, you have this romanticized version of reality. There's the crime and violence, but there's also honor, the loyality and the big tragedy of great men caught on the wrong side of society. The noble gangster springs to my mind.
Not so here, in Outrage, where seemingly everyone is betraying everybody else, regardless of rank and relationship. Sworn Father or Aniki? Doesn't matter, cross him with a sideline drug business or kill him eventually to take over his turf.
Heck, even the big boss gets it. I know some voiced criticism regarding that "twist" but in my opinion, it doesn't matter, the twist really is none. The whole point of the story was to show the utter corruption of organized crime, the true lack of loyality and the selfishness that permeates our society.
I don't know about you guys but i didn't feel wooed by the "coolness" or those gangsters, not for a minute. Nothing made me secretly want to be like them, not the luxurious locations, not the shiny cars, not the expensive suits. All i felt was utter contempt (with a very few exceptions) for all of them. In real life i would want to get away as far as possible from these guys. Compare that to how gangsters and organized crime has been portrayed in cinema before.
In my opinion that was the point of Takeshi's movie.
That and to present an allegory to modern business as a whole.
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palindromicevilolive
13 years ago
I agree with smek2's interpretation of the film(with one exception: I was wooed by the coolness of Ishihara). Regarding the question of the ambassador storyline: It was a bit silly and not terribly important to the plot, but it did allow for some silly humor to give the audience a bit of a break from the escalating gang war and to cleanse our palate a bit before the big finish. Regarding the question of the possibly racist portrayal of the dim-witted and easily coerced ambassador, I admit it did cross my mind. I am hoping that the ethnicity of the character was incidental, and that my suspicion of a racist intent was in fact a projection of my own culturally inculcated sensitivity to any unflattering portrayal of an African or African-American character as something that potentially carries racist intent.
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palindromicevilolive
13 years ago
The ambassador storyline did serve one additional purpose: It gave us a chance to get to know Ishihara, who I found to be one of the most entertaining characters of the film, and a chance to see some Yakuza shenanigans that don't involve massive violence.
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puschit-1
9 years ago
Well, if that qualifies for "racist", then virtually all of Hollywood movies are racist since, with a very few exceptions, foreigners are either the bad guys, they weird ones they can make jokes about or, at best, the single token sidekick type of character that was chosen specifically to say "see, we have a non-white character, the movie is not racist!" ...
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xnurfz
9 years ago
With respect to a possible racist angle. At the end of the scene where the ambassador is made to dig the grave he points out that it's dangerous for him to have to walk back in the dark. To this Ishihara replies something along the lines of "dangerous in the dark? what are you talking about, you'll blend right in"
I interpreted this as the character of Ishihara being a racist, not the movie being racist. The joke was a bit forced anyway because I know of no other place on earth in which it is safer to walk around in the dark than Japan.
I didn't like the whole blackmailing the ambassador segment at all. A forced attempt at humor and scenes that didn't work. The 'murdered' girl scene seems stolen straight from Godfather II. The snake in the bathroom scene was cringing. Also, since the ambassador seemed to speak Japanese just fine there was no need for Ishihara and one of his henchmen to display their knowledge of English. I guess speaking English is considered cool in Japan but it sounded more like Cringlish to me and rather comical as opposed to threatening.
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dbeane
10 years ago
In my opinion, Takeshi's Outrage is a total deconstruction of the Yakuza/Mafia mythos. Very often in movies set in organized crime, you have this romanticized version of reality. There's the crime and violence, but there's also honor, the loyality and the big tragedy of great men caught on the wrong side of society. The noble gangster springs to my mind.
Not so here, in Outrage, where seemingly everyone is betraying everybody else, regardless of rank and relationship. Sworn Father or Aniki? Doesn't matter, cross him with a sideline drug business or kill him eventually to take over his turf.
Aye aye, and a microcosm of this idea was when Kato told Ôtomo (paraphrasing) "Your old-style finger cutting doesn't matter any more".
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