In his nearly three decades as a director, "Beat" Takeshi Kitano has won many critical plaudits and prizes abroad. But in Japan he is best known as a TV personality and comedian. These two strands of his artistic personality — master director and mass entertainer — have come together in his "Outrage" trilogy about present-day gang wars, with Kitano himself starring as an old-school yakuza, Otomo.
The trilogy ends with the new "Outrage Coda." Similar to "Outrage" (2010) and "Outrage Beyond" (2012), the cast is heavily populated with graying veterans, the characters regularly explode into purple-faced rants and the body count is off the charts.
"Outrage Coda" also features a full complement of gangster types, from the floridly eccentric to the coldly psychotic. If the action isn't especially fresh — Kitano fans will spot references to his earlier films — his talent for spare-but-impactful visuals and mean-but-funny twists is still intact. And this unregenerately macho action flick digs deep into the criminal psyche, exposing its loneliness as well as its unlimited capacity for cruelty.
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