Cast of Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage Beyond" Announced

by Marc Saint-Cyr

PLEASE NOTE - the following story contains spoilers for Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage."


It appears that Takeshi Kitano is making good progress with the sequel to his 2010 return to the yakuza genre "Outrage." The film shoot, which began on April 2nd, is now apparently half-way finished, and the finished project, entitled "Outrage Beyond," is set to be released in Japan by Warner Bros. on October 6th, 2012. In a press conference that was held this past Tuesday (April 17th) in Chiba Prefecture, the main cast was revealed. Kitano, Tomokazu Miura, Ryo Kase and Fumiyo Kohinata, who all appeared in the previous film, will be returning, while new actors will include Toshiyuki Nishida, Yutaka Matsushige, Katsunori Takahashi, Kenta Kiritani and Hirofumi Arai. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit of information in this story is the re-appearance of Kitano in his role as the yakuza Otomo, since the character was assumed to be killed at the end of "Outrage." Producer Masayuki Mori cleared up some of the confusion by saying that Otomo in fact survived the film's brutal events, and that "Outrage Beyond" will see the return of the character, but will not be focused on his attempts to gain revenge. The new film's story will instead involve a clash between the Sanno-kai and Hanabishi-kai crime organizations, which control the Kanto and Kansai regions, respectively, while Otomo confronts the police's efforts to eradicate the yakuza. Taking into consideration many viewers' criticisms of the first film being too detached and hollow, it will be interesting to see if Kitano keeps up that trend or decides instead to throw some interesting curve balls, be it through more compelling plot developments or new formal techniques, with "Outrage Beyond."

Many thanks to Nippon Cinema for providing the details for this story.