Outrage: Film Review

9:29 PM PDT 10/14/2010 by Maggie Lee, AP

As violent, amoral and misanthropic as a Jacobean play, "Outrage" is Takeshi Kitano's first yakuza flick since "Brother," and arguably his best film in a decade.

CANNES -- As violent, amoral and misanthropic as a Jacobean play, Outrage is Takeshi Kitano's first yakuza flick since Brother (2000), and arguably his best film in a decade. Cleansed of his pretentious navel-gazing in recent years, it burst with the direct cinematic power of his early works (A Violent Cop, Sonatine), though his style is less minimalist and characters less taciturn. In fact, his representation of internecine gang rivalry and imploding power structure stands up to Kinji Fukasaku's seminal Battle Without Honor series in complexity and unsentimental attitude, with humor as mean and dry as a straight-up martini.