Deadly Outlaw Rekka

Starring:Riki Takeuchi, Ryôsuke Miki, Ken'ichi Endô

Synopsis:

Busting out of jail, Kunisada seeks to avenge the death of Yakuza leader and father figure after he is brutally murdered by a rival organisation .Kunisada and his best friend set out on a two-man mission to get payback.

Like many UK fans of Miike's work, I discovered his wildly imaginative films first through the slow boiler horror movie Audition. This took me to importing Ichi the Killer and then watching the Dead or Alive series when they were released through Tartan.

Deadly Outlaw: Rekka gets an overdue release thanks to Arrow Films. It's a nod back to the Dead or Alive style yakuza action movies that Miike directed before, therefore he had amassed great experience in the Yakuza film by this stage and Rekka shows a certain honing of his craft despite the obvious low budget; quite why this picture was so obscure is a mystery.

As you'd expect, the synopsis is pretty much the plot but with a Takashi Miike movie, the plot is secondary to the exceptional vitality of the visuals. Opening with a montage that is slightly more restrained than the opening of Dead or Alive, the film already hooks the viewer by utilising the excellent Flower Travellin' Man track "Satori Part 1". To some this track will have shades of Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2 but as Quentin Tarantino borrowed soundtracks largely from similar types of movies, you'd be right and wrong at the same time!

Like many of Miike's protagonists or anti-heros, Riki Takeuchi's character of Kunisada is almost superhero like in his ability to survive violent encounters. Takeuchi typically puts in a vibrant performance, full of energy and trademark facial expressions. There are no subtle nuances to his performance and this works in the film's favour.

Like the Dead or Alive series there are a number of character scenes punctuated by action set pieces. For those who don't care about characters sitting around and pontificating, you'll be pleased to know that Miike cut down on this in Deadly Outlaw Rekka . At 90 minutes, it still feels a little slow at times but the creative cinematographic choices more than make up for that, with jump cuts, slo-mo and unusual transitions between scenes. One special moment for me, was an ambush that occurs on a rural road. In seemingly one take, Miike shows us a shootout with antagonists off camera and only present (for the most part) by the muzzle flashes of their weapons.

Miike also manages to weave distinct themes of betrayal, love, sorrow, duty within the plot, along with the main motif; revenge.

If you are familiar with Miike's back catalogue you will no doubt be used to his habit of putting in some quite extreme images in his movies. Ichi the Killer is rife with this. Rekka is mild by comparison but I still managed to raise a chuckle at Miike's audacity in a couple of scenes. Whilst the violence is toned down for a change, one scene in particular had me amused. Let's just say it involved spitting not swallowing and leave it at that.

At the end I did feel like I had seen another version of Dead or Alive. This wasn't a bad thing as deja-vu does kick in when watching many films of a particular genre. The bottom line is that there are no other directors that come close to Miike when it comes to making these types of movie. The dominance of Hong Kong movies in the Heroic Bloodshed genre (that I feel this movie inhabits) was long gone by 2002.

Summary:

Once again, Miike shows how creative and skilled he is as a film maker. The action is well done once it arrives but the quieter scenes tended to try my patience in anticipation of the next set piece. I was surprised at the damaged quality of the print Arrow used but trust that they found the best print there is. I know that every effort is normally made to provide the best quality version of a film they can and suspect this time was no different.

7 out of 10 (Wayfarer)

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