Yakuza leader and Kunisada's father figure is murdered, and together with his best friend, Kunisada goes on a mission to avenge his death. Killing off other Yakuza leaders and people working for the different families, and in the end a final confrontation with the man who slayed Kunisada's leader.
This is another one of Takashi Miike's Yakuza movies, and for being a Miike movie, it's actually not as weird or "special" as most of his other movies tend to be. You can still tell it's Miike who's behind it, but it's just not as Miike as many of his other movies feel like. Been using the word Miike to much here already, but I guess if you've seen a lot of his stuff, you should know what I mean, and if you haven't, nevermind.
 Deadly Outlaw: Rekka is about a man named Kunisada, played by Riki Takeuchi that you might recognize from Battle Royale and Dead or Alive among other things. Personally I think that Riki Takeuchi is a really good and believable actor, and it's always fun to see him on screen. Here he's doing an excellent job as Kunisada who's a kind of a psychopathic character who won't stop at nothing getting his revenge. He's actually the perfect actor for this flick as he's somewhat intimidating and that goes really well with all the violence that's in the movie.
So Kuni and his friend sets out to take out all the Yakuza heads and to find the one who killed their leader. But at the same time, since Kuni is causing a lot of disturbance and problems, the Yakuza heads send out their men to finish him off as well. But Kuni sure is determined and won't stop at nothing in his search for revenge.
There's a lot of violence, and it's done very well and feels very realistic which fits the movie perfectly. There's a lot of talk in the movie, and sometimes it feels like it slows down a bit too much, but it never really takes long before it gets going again. One big problem that this movie suffers from though is that there are way to many characters involved, and it's actually really hard to keep track of everyone, their names, who they are and what they represent. Still, in the end this is not such a big problem and it won't stop you from enjoying the overall movie.
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka is kinda similar to Agitator, only that Rekka is more simple. It's easy to root for Kunisada, even if he has a temper and is pretty hot-headed, he's still very likable, or maybe that's the reason why he's so likable, I don't know. His friend is kinda hot-headed as well, but is like Kuni, also pretty likable and he actually brings a lot of comic relief to the movie.
The score is just weird, I can't really explain it. The movie is filled with these rock type songs but that are way different and has a lot of weird stuff in them. When first started watching this movie, the music was a bit too distracting and sometimes I found myself focusing more on the music than to what was actually going on in the movie. After a while though, the type of music the movie contains kinda grew on you and after finished watching the whole thing, I actually felt like the overall score fit really well into the film.
If you're into crime or even better, Yakuza movies, this one might be something for you to check out. It's far from Miike's best and if you're looking for a Miike movie there are a lot of other better choises. Still, it's a pretty entertaining flick with good acting, that sometimes is a bit over the top but that still fits the concept.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Jitsuroku And˘ Noboru ky˘d˘-den: Rekka
MOVIE YEAR: 2002
DIRECTOR: Takashi Miike
WRITING CREDITS: Shigenori Takechi
GENRE: Crime, Drama
CAST: Riki Takeuchi, Ry˘suke Miki, Kenichi Endo
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 96 min
RATING: 6/10
Deadly Outlaw Rekka Website/IMDB Click here
Deadly Outlaw Rekka Trailer Click here
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