“Beyond Outrage” fails to live up to its title as Japanese superstar Takeshi Kitano can’t find much in the way of fresh ideas for the genre.
A corrupt cop (Fumiyo Kohinata) touches off a civil war between two allied crime families that involves springing an aging ex-mob chief named Otomo (Kitano, also the writer and director) from prison. The other mobsters (improbably) had long believed Otomo dead, but once paroled, he joins forces with a former rival (Hideo Nakano) to set about punishing traitors to the family.
In this sequel to 2010’s “Outrage,” Kitano’s pacing is slow (especially in the opening 20 minutes, an indigestible bolus of exposition) and the snarl of
double-crossing is difficult to sort out, though the director does occasionally stage a brilliantly gruesome murder or torture scene. One guy proves his worth by biting off his own finger.
Too bad the audience doesn’t get much to chew on: None of the interchangeably ruthless characters has much psychological complexity, and it’s difficult to see the ultimate point of the cop’s machinations, which seem to produce nothing except big business for the morgue.