Takeshi Kitano is back with a yakuza film, an announcement that is sure to send shivers of excitement among the many fans of the Japanese director across the world. Yet the 62-minute feature turns out, after a seemingly straightforward beginning, to be a farcical parody of gangster films. This allows Kitano, who wrote, directed and edited “Broken Rage“, to give free reins to his zany comical leanings.
“Broken Rage” is screening at Venice International Film Festival
Kitano plays Mr. Mouse, a phlegmatic assassin for hire who is seen coolly dispatching various victims. One day he is arrested by the police, who force him to work for them and infiltrate a Tokyo drugs gang. This rather conventional story soon ends, however, as the plot resets and starts over from the beginning, retelling the same events, sometimes scene-for-scene, but in comical, delirious form.
Describing “Broken Rage” as a send-up of Kitano’s celebrated gangster films would be an understatement. This is a great opportunity to enjoy Kitano’s clown persona and the kind of outlandish humor he has become famous for, applied for once to his trademark gangster formula. The diptych structure of the film allows Kitano to combine both his crime drama and quirky facetious tendencies, making the comedy especially palatable to audiences who are already familiar with the director’s filmography.
The first part of the film – the serious, Takeshi Kitano part – is very pedestrian and only here to pave the way for the second, increasingly hysterical segment, in which Beat Takeshi indulges in the kind of nonsensical humor Western audiences would typically find in a “Naked Gun” or “Pink Panther” film. He very much wants to have fun at the expense of his Yakuza persona and does his utmost to ridicule the various clichés of the genre. One of the most hilarious moments is a spoof of classic witness identification scenes, referenced on the poster, which literally pictures the Takeshi Kitano and Beat Takeshi personas side by side. Much of the humor is in the pure tradition of slapstick, with the character repeatedly crashing to the floor or smashing into various objects.
Check also this article
Kitano himself revealed in Venice his slight embarrassment at having his short film, commissioned by Amazon for streaming, shown in such a prestigious festival (where “Hana-Bi” was crowned with the Golden Lion in 1997), even if out of competition. This was perhaps the best joke of “Broken Rage”, which can largely be seen as a trolling exercise in which Kitano has fun mocking everyone, first of all himself – and perhaps Amazon as well.
This is especially clear in the meta sequences where social media messages are displayed on screen, the best gag in the film judging by the audience’s belly laughs. The social media posts complain in real time about how lame a film has to be to resort to displaying social media posts on screen to last a little longer and reach the 60-minute mark. Kitano himself (or was it Beat Takeshi?) said in his press conference the gag was meant to help pad out the film, but it is still one of its highlights.
He needn’t have worried about Venice: the audience, plainly composed to a large extent of devoted fans of the director, laughed heartily at such tongue-in-cheek jokes, although a few other gags were clearly lost in translation. There is a sense that the actors on screen are having as much fun as the audience, and at least in one instance, some of them can be seen having difficulties remaining in character and keeping from laughing out loud.
Tadanobu Asano shines as the delirious lead police detective. Nao Omori, another regular in Kitano’s films, is also clearly having a kick starring as the other madcap detective. Both cops, who own some of the funniest passages in the film (including a wild interrogation scene), are sometimes on the brink of stealing the limelight from Kitano himself.
“Broken Rage” is a fun, unassuming romp into nonsensical territory, which should please fans of Kitano, be that the director or the wild comedian. Making the film available globally would be a huge service by Amazon, which would help get international audiences acquainted with Beat Takeshi. And get a good laugh.
