 |
 |
| DEADLY OUTLAW REKKA (aka Violent Fire) By Yodasnoog |
| When the boss of the Sanada clan is assinated by a rival gang, the Otaki-kai-Nakajo gang, Arata Kunisada (Riki Takeuchi) becomes extremely angered. Kunisada is a member of the Sanada clan and consiered his boss a father figure. When he gets out of jail he goes about getting his revenge, ignoring plans of a truce by the Bando Association. Although things are not what they seem, as a plan has been hatched to dispatch of both gangs. Another Takashi Miike classic here, and for me, one of his best and most entertaining. As far as plot structure goes, this is definetly one of his most straight forward movies, although not without the occasional burst of “Miike World” madness. Riki Takeuchi is on top form here as usual, his insane facial expressions really make you believe Kunisada is a man capable of anything. Kenichi Endo is also great as his Yakuza brother, helping him carry out his revenge. There are also a few old-school Japanese favourites that pop up here and there too Tetsuro Tanba (Happiness Of The Katakuris) and Sonny Chiba (The Streetfighter) have some cool cameos playing elder Yakuza bosses. Compared to other Miike movies that revolve around revenge and the world of the Yakuza, Deadly Outlaw Rekka is more of an action movie than a brutal violence affair. That’s not to say when the action kicks in it isn’t violent because it is. The most brutal scene comes when Kunisda dispatches a bunch of Yakuza who make the mistake of pissing him off; he beats the hell out of them with fists and feet and then picks up a crobar and goes to work, the scene will have you wincing and squirming in your seat as he digs the crobar into a guys back and drags him across the floor. The finale of the movie is explosive, although there may be other spoilers in other reviews all I’ll say is it includes Kunisada, a bazooka and carnage. Also later, the film shows us quite possibly the most over the top excuse for a machine gun in a movie ever, it’s like a cross between the pulse rilfe from Aliens and a tank buster. The soundtrack is superb, consisting of songs from the album ‘Satori’ by the Flower Travellin’ Band, a 70’s rock band from Japan. I liked the soundtrack so much I’m going to see about getting ahold of the album. The main song that plays during the opening of the movie will be stuck in your head for days, rather like the theme for Dead Or Alive was. This may a good place to start if you want are interested to see some of Miike’s movies, it gives a good indication of what you can expect from his other movies without being as heavy handed as say Ichi The Killer or Fudoh. Media Blasters have secured the rights to this for a US dvd release, so I recommend everyone check it out…If you can’t wait till then you can always pick up the brilliant cannibal-king bootleg DVD. |
 |
 |
 |