Beyond Outrage

Beyond Outrage (2012) is the sequel of Takeshi Kitano's return to the yakuza genre. Like that film there is much double and triple crossing that takes place among yakuza leading to lots of over the top violence. It doesn't seems as though Kitano is adding anything new in the sequel and in many ways these last two films seems to be his most conventional and least "arty." I suspect these films made a lot more money than his navel-gazing trilogy that proceeded them: Takeshis' (2005), Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), Achilles and the Tortoise (2008). However, I felt that both films fell short of what he accomplished with his masterpiece Hana-Bi, let alone the lesser yakuza films like Boiling Point (1990) and Sonatine (1993).