I just watch an import dvd of this a few hours ago. I don't know what it is about Takashi Miike's direction that is so amusing and interesting. He takes the usual cliche riddled Yakuza story and turns it into something out of the ordinary. If you have seen Dead Or Alive and/or Ichi The Killer, you will know what I am talking about. +++++++++++++SPOILER ALERT+++++++++++++++++SPOILER ALERT++++++++++++++ The film opens with a Yakuza Boss being eliminated by a couple of thugs. We find out that this is the father of cool ass kicker Riki Takeuchi. Now Takeuchi aka Kunisada is out for his own justice against the opposing Yakuza clans. There is double cross after triple cross. The great Sonny Chiba has a cameo as one of the yakuza bosses. The film does drag for about 35 minutes. However, the script is interesting enough as well as the characters themselves. The final twenty minutes have to bee seen to be believed. Takeuchi and his "Connected" brother are a two man army as they obliterate their opponents with grenade launchers. I still don't understand the ending!??? +++++++SPOILER ALERT+++++++++++++++++++SPOILER ALERT++++++++++++++++++ At the end we see the Yakuza bosses talking about the deaths of Kunisada and his "connected" brother. Then ( something out of Star Wars!?) a hologram image of Kunisada's dead father appears and says "Rock N' Roll"!!!!???? HUH? Anyway, this being a Takashi Miike and Riki Takeuchi film, I am a little bit more biased in Miike's sense of film making and I give this an eight out ten. Very cool and violent.
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cbdunn6 February 2004
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thisissubtitledmovies9 December 2010excerpt, more at my location - A yakuza film is bread and butter for Takashi Miike, and Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (Jitsuroku Andô Noboru kyôdô-den: Rekka), sandwiched between the sadistic violence of Ichi The Killer and the surrealism of Gozu, is surprisingly ordinary when compared with much of the director's oeuvre. However, the straightforward nature of this 2002 film is the essence of its charm.
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka is such unabashed fun it will leave you feeling indulgent and sporting a maniacal grin from start to finish, just like the one, you might imagine subsequent to viewing, Miike wore while making it. Concentrated to an hour-and-a-half, as so few recent films are, it hits you like a shot of pure audio-visual entertainment straight in the arm. -
This was really one great ride from Takashi Miike, if you love or you are familliar with his style you will really enjoy Deadly Outlaw:Rekka, it is not intelligent movie, it is not movie with a big budget but it is entertraining and full of energy, and yes the cast in this one is amazing, so many great memorable faces from Japanese cinema, sadly a lot of them are now deceased: Joe Yamanaka, Rikiya Yasuoka, Yuya Uchida, Tetsuro Tanba, Shin'ichi Chiba and the main protagonist of the movie Riki Takeuchi, this is one of his most memorable roles for sure. The first half of the movie is like any other regular Yakuza movie, the second part is more unique cartoonish Miike style, and it works in the movie very well, love the ending when Riki is taking Bazooka to destroy his enemies. You will remember this movie thanks to magnificent cast and its charachters, i enjoyed this one more than more known Dead or Alive. In the same day i have watched Kikoku or Yakuza Demon from 2003, it is different sort of the movie, more regular Yakuza crime, but my recoomendation is to watch it in combination with Deadly Outlaw Rekka. I give this one 8/10.
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Rekka is a movie that deals with the theme of backstabbing and diplomacy of the new Yakuza clashing against the violence and honor of the old Yakuza; a common theme in Miike's under-the-radar gangster movies. It begins when the protagonist's father, the leader of a crime family, is killed. Before he knows what's happening, the new boss of his gang is already making agreements and accepting the murder to avoid a full-scale gang war. Needless to say, the son isn't happy, so he seeks revenge on the rival crime family. Knowing this, the new boss tries to get rid of him so that he can enjoy his new place in the Yakuza hierarchy.
On its own, this is an exciting modern Yakuza thriller filled with bloodshed and intrigue. But if you're already a Miike fan, you might be let down by a few details.
Rekka follows a pretty distinct formula. It has the same plot ideas, nearly the same characters, some of the same actors, and the same filmmakers as Agitator and Kikoku (which came out later). While Miike changes up the style and feel of each one, it still looks like he made three different versions of the same movie. Shigenori Takechi, the screenwriter of all three, has to be the laziest guy in the film industry. You see the same characters doing the same things, only with different names and settings. Like the other movies, the protagonist is a seemingly invincible and honorable guy who just can't seem to get killed no matter what he does. There is a charismatic and equally invincible hit-man chasing him. There are greedy and cowardly superiors that only he can stand up to. There is a dethroned and deceased father figure that he wants to avenge. And of course, there is a love interest that appears for a few minutes combined and has no personality or reason to even be in this movie.
The way that this movie is different is that the feel is a little more intense and modern than the other two. The visuals and camera-work are comparatively better and do a much better job of grabbing your attention. It is not as slow-paced and complicated as Agitator (clearly the best of the three), and it's all-around better than Kikoku (the worst). The ending is the most unique part. For better or worse, it is incredibly strange, and I know that some people will like it. Rekka appears to have the largest budget of the three movie and is the easiest to understand; it's definitely the one to show to your friends.
Like those two other movies, there are no insane shocker moments or incredible gore effects that will stick in your head forever. Rekka has almost nothing in common with Ichi or Fudoh, for example, so new fans of Miike's work might not get what they expect. But it has more than its share of violence, just not enough to make your head spin.
On it's own, Rekka is definitely not a waste of time, and my criticism doesn't sound fair at all. However, the feeling is ruined when you've seen Agitator and/or Kikoku. Seeing these movies after each other in a short span of time left me with a feeling that I got from Graveyard of Honor, another Miike/Takechi product. But in that case, it only took one movie to make me feel uncomfortable by giving me the same message over and over again. -
rdoyle295 March 2023Assassins from the Otaki group murder Yuya Uchida (manager/producer of 1970's psychedelic prog metal band Flower Travellin' Band, who provide the film's soundtrack) leader of the Sanada group. Riki Takeuchi considered him a father figure and wants vengeance, but the leaders of both groups want to avoid a war and enlist Bando group leader Sonny Chiba to negotiate a truce.
So ... it's all a scheme by both groups second-in-commands to eliminate the leaders and take over, with Chiba running the whole show. They trick Takeuchi into killing Otaki group leader Renji Ishibashi and then try to kill him to close all loose ends. Those loose ends stay very much open.
Takashi Miike has a tendency to make films that are so loose and ramshackle that they feel like they may fall apart at any minute. This is one of those. That doesn't mean they're necessarily bad ... and this one certainly isn't ... but it does mean that after a really dynamic opening and before it's amazing gonzo conclusion, you get a lot of meandering scenes of yakuza dumping plot exposition on each other. It's not always dull ... mainly due to Miike's tendency to stage very weird scenes like two yakuza talking outdoors in a playground in the rain each holding tiny transparent plastic umbrellas ... but it frequently is.
The Flower Travellin' Band soundtrack is worth the price of admission. -
zetes11 April 2005Miike makes another yakuza picture. It's not especially groundbreaking, and it's certainly not one of Miike's deeper films, but it is extremely entertaining. That's mostly because of the main character, Kunisada (Miike regular Riki Takeuchi), who is the most psychopathic character in Japanese movies since Tatsuya Nakadai's evil samurai in Sword of Doom. Kunisada's mob boss, his surrogate father, is ambushed and murdered (though not before nearly strangling his assailant to death; the hit-man only lives because he cuts the dead man's hands off as they clench around his windpipe). Simultaneously, Kunisada, almost as if through a psychic bond, breaks out of jail and starts to go against the rival gang. The only problem is that the boss's death isn't necessarily a bad thing from his own gang's perspective. They and their rival gang try desperately to make a truce. Unfortunately for everyone, except for a small handful of loyal comrades, Kunisada won't stop until everyone around him is dead. The film suffers from Miike's major flaw as a filmmaker: a lack of coherency. There seem to be dozens of named characters, and it becomes very difficult to sort out who everyone is. I had to watch key scenes a second time to piece it all together (though I had most of it straight by the end of the film). But, even if you never quite figure it out, Miike's patented break-neck action sequences are so outrageously done that the film is more than worth watching. Watch out when Kunisada finds a rocket launcher!
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ele1293 July 2005Like many people I was first turned onto the works of the great director Takashi Miike in the movie "Ichi the killer". After viewing that film I was instantly hooked to his take no prisoners style. Takashi Miike is a man that truly stretches the boundaries of violence and audacity into an art form. Several months later I was surprised to see "Deadly Outlaw Rekka" sitting on the shelves of my local Best Buy. Due to the rarity of Takashi Miike's films I bought it without hesitation, and I'm glad I did. Japanese film star Riki Takuechi (or as i like to call him, cool hair guy from "Dead or Alive") plays the roll of Kunisada, a grizzly yakuza hell bent on revenge for the death of his boss. As the story unfolds the audience becomes ensnared in webs of love, betrayal, sorrow, and revenge. Though lacking in the unbridled violence that originally drew me in to these kind of movies the gritty and often times zany style of Takashi Miike remains ever present. Overall "Deadly Outlaw Rekka" is a fantastic film that is a must have for fans of Takashi Miike or just really great action films and worthy addition to any movie collection!
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Leofwine_draca19 March 2013DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA is a rare misfire from the usually interesting Takashi Miike, who can typically be relied upon from making outrageously entertaining movies. This is a standard Yakuza movie, featuring a low rent thug who decides to go on an odyssey of revenge, yet despite a few moments of surrealism and violence you can't really tell it's a Miike film at all.
Instead it has more in common with low budget art-house fare, featuring interchangeable characters and some padded scenes of characters wandering the streets aimlessly at night. Oh, there's bound to be a brutal fight scene or execution around the next corner, but there isn't anything that makes you care about what's going on. Okay, I don't watch a Miike film for the characterisation, but at least ICHI THE KILLER had tons of incident and AUDITION's slow build worked when matched with THAT ending.
This one's predictable in the extreme, I couldn't care less about the characters, and the whole 'stone face' type of acting is just a bit dull. Miike tries to spice things up with a sex scene here and a mutilation there, but it isn't enough; for much of the running time, I was simply bored. DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA does have the same kind of hustle and vibe as the early gangster films of Beat Takeshi, but it lacks their finesse and raw power. Attempts to make it feel like an old-fashioned grindhouse movie of the 1970s don't really gel either; instead this movie is both slight and forgettable. -
esalidog16 May 2020Miike shows us in this film his outstanding gift for the yakuza genre from the first minute to the last. This time he adds a soundtrack from the Flower Traveling Band, Satori, a Doom Metal key album from 1971 that makes those master shoots, of perfect color, shine without stopping during the cinematographic experience he proposes. His characters flow before the viewer like a handful of impossible to stop Japanese scarfaces. Shinjuku, mafia, escorts, magic and Rock and Roll !!
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spanky66662 March 2007Those of you that are used to American-style movies, don't watch this because you're probably going to be bored. People, like me, who are used to weird Japanese movie-styles will mildly enjoy this movie. The editing is very strange, sometimes you get the impression that your DVD has skipped, the sound is also weird in some places, I can't explain exactly what's wrong with it but watch this film and you'll know what I mean.
I recently watched "Imprint". That's an episode in the "Masters Of Horror"-series directed by Takashi Miike. THAT's what I call a strong and violent film. It was awesome!
Don't expect too much and you will be entertained. But not as much as you expected. A decent watch. Nothing to keep. -
Seemingly modeled after DEAD OR ALIVE, starting off with a stylistical hodge podge of slow-mo gunfights and paranoid posturing and sizzling in the finale with a fair share of comic-book outrageousness, Rekka succeeds as a movie not for being ultraviolent or particularly graphic (it is neither by Miike standards - although still violent enough to raise a public outcry if it was the work of a mainstream American director), not because yakuza underlings get shot full of holes or Riki Takeuchi scowls like a bulldog as he shoots rocket launchers in the middle of crowded streets (DOA homage anyone?), not for the sound and fury, but for the moments in between. In that respect, Rekka is antithetical to DOA. Whereas DOA dragged through a drab and lifeless middle act to arrive at an exciting conclusion, Rekka sustains itself through moments of quietude and intimacy. In between the outbursts of violence, Miike gives us life as lived. Takeuchi's friend giving him advice on his hair dye. The glances between Takeuchi and his Korean girlfriend. The dingy eateries, night clubs and neon-lit streets - Miike prowling Fukasaku's stampin' grounds half a century after the patriarch of the yakuza film first pictured a different kind of postwar Japan.
In the end, Rekka works so well as a movie because Miike restrains the child within him eager to shock and impress and embraces the dramatist who observes the small moments of life. The plot is mostly forgettable, something about the son of a yakuza boss going on a spree to avenge the death of his father while a gangland conspiracy festers behind and a war between the different fractions is about to break out, and Takeuchi in the leading role scowls a little too much for my liking. But overall, this is as good a yakuza flick as I've seen from Miike, violent, funny, occasionally beautiful, imaginatively conceived but hastily executed (as with most Miike films), a thoroughbred Miike flick bearing all his trademarks, one aimed at both the heart and the gut. Not a masterpiece of any kind but a worthwhile movie. -
kaljic20 August 2021Takashi Miike is truly one of the most versatile film directors working today. You cannot pigeonhole him. He slips into action, drama, comedy, family, fantasy, science fiction, manga, or art movies, or just plain weird, cultish movies, and back again, with ease, skill, and dexterity.
This movie is more or less a conventional action movie. It is a typical revenge movie, the rage of retribution by a young Yakuza gangster avenging the death of his mentor.
It is one of his neglected gems, while this might be easy to do as he has put out one hundred movies at this writings.
It also has, in my opinion, one of the best fight scenes ever committed to film, ever.
Nuff said. -
mister_bateman13 May 2020It starts out okay with an interesting premise but gets more stupid and ridiculous as it goes on. In the end it becomes outright disrespectful towards the audience. It reminds me of one of those modern "artists" who defecates on a canvas and gets praised as a visionary by pretentious critics (reviewers) holding wine glasses.
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predkill10 January 2023Why are many Yakuza movies so confusing and Boring , I saw Shinjuku Killers which was not much better than Deadly Outlaw Rekka. I also started to watch The Agitator which was also confusing and way too muck talky , all movies by Takeshi Miike. However some of Miike Movies are pretty good , Ichii the killer and Audition and the great Lesson of the Evil, all of them has a much better pacing and a Interesting Storyline than Miikes Yakuza Movies. I also watched recently Dead or Alive from Miike , It is more a Crime Thriller than Yakuza Movie, It was decent but has also his flaws. After watching so many Japanese Movies , It's safe to say that Hong Kong Cinema is better than Japanese (But I still like Japanese Movies too)