Takeshi Kitano has had some of his biggest critical and commercial successes with gangster films, beginning with his 1993 international breakthrough ¡°Sonatine¡± and continuing through to his 2012 hit ¡°Outrage Beyond¡± (¡°Beyond Outrage¡°), which screened in competition at the 2012 Venice Film Festival.
But as chillingly violent as his yakuza characters can be, they often have a blackly humorous side as well. When the gangsters in ¡°Beyond Outrage¡± operatically vent on an unfortunate underling, it sounds something like a manzai (comic duo) insult routine.
In his new film ¡°Ryuzo to Shichinin no Kobuntachi¡± (¡°Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen¡°), Kitano brings this comic undercurrent to the surface. Based on his own script about a gang of elderly retired yakuza, ¡°Ryuzo¡± is intended as a laugh riot from beginning to end, with no glum reflections whatsoever on the plight of the aged. And it mostly is, though it helps to be a genre fan to get the inside jokes.
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