The last gangster movie

On the plane back I glimpsed on a screen in front of me a peculiar Japanese movie.  Full of intense meetings with cranky old men, it looked like some kind of corporate drama.

Only, upon further inspection (some furtive Googling) it turns that this is Outrage: Coda, the final installment in a trilogy of Yakuza films by the Japanese director Takeshi Kitano.  Some say his films are just blood-spattered exercises in exploitation, while others compare him favorably to the French auteur Jean-Pierre Melville (e.g., Le Samourai).  Kurosawa interviewed him once and said he liked his stuff.

Normally I don't go in for this kind of thing.  On the other hand, this is a 12 hour flight, and the alternatives are Barney and The Big Bang Theory.  In I go.

It is superb.  The cinematography and acting are outstanding.  In the photo above we are looking at some power players in the Hanabishi family.  They are pondering how to apologize to the Korean Chang family for the errors of the man on the left, Hanada, who mistreated some girls at a Chang-controlled resort on Jeju Island in South Korea.  When the local Chang representative - a man named Otomo - stopped by to demand compensation, Hanada instead had his men kill the flunky they were supposed to pay.

In hindsight, this was a mistake.

One big problem is that the initial apology, attempted with Deputy Underboss Nakata (next to Hanada in the photo above) went poorly.  The bundle on the table is a large sum of money that was pushed back in their faces.  Underboss Nishino is digesting all this as the head of the family, Nomura, looks on from behind.

The Chang are not amused.

There is a second problem, which intensifies their pondering.  Otomo, the local Chang representative in question, is a semi-retired Tokyo gangster who also featured prominently in the prior two movies.  Otomo (played by director Kitano) is an old-fashioned gangster who prefers direct action.  In his prime he was somewhere between Omar and Harmonica in terms of his ability to screw up large organizations through violent countermeasures.  He has a grudge against the Hanabishi - it was their purge of his old gang that prompted him to seek a peaceful life abroad with the Changs.  As one review has it, "having slashed and burned all other bridges, then gone back to riddle them with bullets, Otomo is now off-grid ..."

Although fiercely loyal to the Changs, he is fish-shooting pissed about the Hanabishi killing his guy.

There is a third issue simmering beneath the surface:  Nishino and Nomura hate each other.  Nomura isn't a real Yakuza - he married into the family, took no oaths, and has never been in prison.  In the meeting shown above Nishino takes charge and says he will take Hanada back to the Changs, and help him apologize properly ("I'll show you the finesse that Nakata lacks").  Nomura reads this as a way for Nishino to get with the Chang to plot against him, and begins to, you know, take steps.

The second apology does not go particularly well either, as Chang ignores the apologizers while reviewing plans for a new resort and instructing his people to not accept bids below "eight billion."  English is heard in the hallway.  Nishino abandons the finesse strategy, ignores the ignoring, and starts yelling at Chang across the room.

"THIS ASSHOLE SCREWED UP.  WE ARE HERE TO APOLOGIZE."

After they leave, things escalate quickly.  Nomura decides to whack both Nishino and Chang.  Chang (after a failed attempt on his life) decides to whack Nomura.  Chang also deploys Otomo back to Tokyo to even things up a bit more, which he does, just possibly overshooting the mark in the process.

The trailer gives you the general look of the film and the flavor of the action scenes, but doesn't capture the brilliant pacing, acting, and dialogue:



If you tuned in for the gun porn, the joke is on you - the slaughters take up perhaps five minutes of the movie.  The real story is about conflicts between personal honor and organizational obligations, the trials of advancing age and decrepitude, and the utter emptiness of gangster violence.

A dry sense of humor also emerges sometimes, this is apparently a Kitano trademark:

- You're just a retired office worker without your henchmen.
- You're betraying me?
- Betray is too strong a word.  It gives the impression that I was on your side.

Outrage: Coda doesn't just end the trilogy, it probably also ends the gangster movie.  After the final scene, which is stone cold perfect, there's nothing much left to say except see it.