When Otomo emerges from prison, we expect revenge -- and considering the vicious, volatile nature of the man we knew in the first film, we expect that revenge to be bloody, ruthless and extraordinary. What we get instead is a changed man: He's tired, old, hesitant; even conciliatory at times. Frustrated with the redundant, pretentious mob rules he used to live by. Most of the violence, even, is off-screen. Meanwhile, the cool, confident up-and-comers of the first film have become pampered, angry whiners desperate to hold onto their power. This is all explored with the director's typical deadpan subtlety, and in the complex, twisting world of "Outrage Beyond," the elegant little change of character is what gives the film its heart.
A mise en scene of such punctilious rigour as Kitano’s has proved palatable, not least in Outrage. In Beyond, it remains tightly polished, but, while inextricably tangled in its realpolitik, arises more coherently pronounced - magnified from the intra-level (micro) to the macro, embroiling politics, police into a systemic tapestry; envisaging farcical internecine symbiosis, wherein Kitano works on the schematic over violence, in contrast to the original. The shock factor might've dissipated, but the drama undergoes an assured, tantalising renewal herein.
Seamlessly continues the story of Outrage. The intensity of Outrage Beyond kept me on the edge of my seat all the way until the end.
If l words could kill they probably will.
