Yakuza movies are very macho, often mainly about male gangsters either meeting in board rooms or fighting each other in the street. The best Yakuza movies interrogate the codes of honour and loyalty that are merely lip service to the criminal drive to make money and grab power. Takashi Miike has a hundred plus movies to his filmography and a good chunk of them would be Yakuza flicks.
There’s something distinctive Miike adds to the genre, and in Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002), the opening sequence hits you with a pulsating energy as the movie cuts between several scenes while we hear the 1970s psych-rock of the Flower Travellin’ Band (their album Satori basically soundtracks the movie at key points). Within this montage, a senior gang leader is assassinated by a younger, punk-styled footsoldier, while Kunisada (Riki Takeuchi) sits in a police interrogation office, vibrating with rage. Turns out the assassinated leader was not just Kunisada’s boss, but was also his father. So Kunisada swears revenge even as the rival gangs broker peace and repair order to get back to business as usual.
There’s a clear divide between the older Yakuza leaders (including Sonny Chiba) meeting in rooms, offering each other gifts and packages, organising their underlings to kill, while the foot-soldiers congregate in houses or the streets. Takeuchi sneers and glowers in his performance, his character preparing himself for war by dyeing his hair grey (as a tribute to his dad). Even with this move towards a suicidal revenge mission, the film is mostly a hang-out as Kunisada and his main offsider strut around, spending time with two Korean girls, receiving tips on what their next move should be, contemplating death, etc. There are sincere displays of loyalty amongst Kunisada’s crew, bits of bizarre comedy such as the interactions between the assassin duo responsible for the hit, and then over-the-top craziness such as Kunisada strutting around at night and using a rocket launcher to settle the score by striking a building or two.
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka has a great balance of tones, a punchy running time, and a momentum that flows from the moderate budget, street locations and Takashi Miike flourishes, particularly whenever the psychedelic rock kicks in. It’s violent and sordid, but not as sledgehammer over-the-top as Ichi The Killer, finding a malaise and a weird kind of weariness amongst the inevitable bloodshed. Streamed on SBS On Demand.
VHS Tracking 