Deadly Outlaw Rekka - The Full Details

[Almar@Cult Labs]

Ladies and Gentlemen - it's scandalous this Takashi Miike film has been unavailable for so long in the UK. Arrow Video are making up for that with an edition that has surely been worth the wait.

Front Sleeve:




DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ‘AUDITION’ AND ‘ICHI THE KILLER’.

Sex, gore, ultra-violence, psychotic Yakuza hitmen, the blackest of humour, Sonny Chiba, a pounding proto-metal soundtrack and gratuitous and inappropriate use of a tire iron and a hand-held rocket launcher – it just has to be a movie from Japan’s most prolific and unpredictable cult filmmaker and master of Asian extreme cinema, Takashi Miike (Sukiyaki Western Django; Ichi The Killer; the Dead Or Alive trilogy; Audition).

Written by Shigenori Takechi (Blood; Izo) and produced by Tsuneo Seto (Blood) – both real-life Yakuza before taking up careers in the movies – Takashi Miike’s Deadly Outlaw: Rekka is an expertly crafted tale of vengeance and betrayal set in Japan’s vicious criminal underworld.

Following the death of his boss, crazed killer Kunisada embarks on a violent quest for revenge, one that takes him on a deadly and surreal road trip as he searches for those responsible for the killing. Driven by madness and a volatile temper, he soon finds himself up against both his enemies and his own Yakuza allies. Pursued by a pair of hitmen, Kunisada is at once the hunter and the hunted, a pawn in a complex game being played out by a cast of double-crossing villains. With his situation spiralling out of control, he realizes that to be the winner will require him to take matters to furthest extreme.

Stylistically inspired by Japanese hard rock pioneers Flower Travellin’ Band’s 1971 album, ‘Satori’, the music of which constitutes the film’s entire soundtrack, Deadly Outlaw: Rekka is a must-see (and must hear) movie for Takashi Miike fans. Featuring a standout lead performance by frequent Miike collaborator Riki Takeuchi (the Dead Or Alive trilogy; the Fudoh trilogy), plus amusing fan-pleasing cameos from the legendary Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill) and Flower Travellin’ Band members Joe Yamanaka and Yuya Ichida, this is pure visual ‘Rock and roll!’

Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by Arrow Video on 15th November 2010. Special Features include: brand new transfer of the film with new and improved subtitle translation; original trailer; video interview with director Takashi Miike; ‘Deadly Outlaw: Miike’ – Takashi Miike discusses key scenes from the film and working with his collaborators; booklet featuring stills and an essay on the film by Tom Mes, author of ‘Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike’; notes on prog rockers Flower Travellin’ Band, the stars and providers of the soundtrack to the film.

Reverse sleeve:



Arrow:

Deadly Outlaw: Rekka

Amazon:

Deadly Outlaw Rekka [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Riki Takeuchi, Ryôsuke Miki, Sonny Chiba, Takashi Miike: DVD

Play:

Deadly Outlaw: Rekka - DVDs at Play.com (UK)

HMV:

Deadly Outlaw Rekka: Subtitled/Japanese (2010): DVD: hmv.com

[chibba99]

Glad to see some Takashi Miike getting a release and to see the news on Battle Royale I would love to see some more Asian titles announced Battles without Honor & Humanity AKA The Yakuza Papers would be nice or some classic Sonny Chiba.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Lovely package.A nice companion piece to Battle Royale.

[Sam@Cult Labs]

Read the press release with lots of useful hyperlinks HERE. There's some rock n roll obscurity and off beam Miike trailers that will give any newbies a real flavour of a remarkable director and his fascinating influences.

For me, the one really interesting aspect of the movie that stands out is the use of Flower Travelin' Band's amazing Satori LP as the basis for the soundtrack.

In the UK and US, we tend to have a blinkered view of how rock music adapts and mutates in the hands of other cultures and I'm to say that if you like Psychedelic Rock or Black Sabbath, then you need to hear this band and the movie is a great way to do this. Popular music isn't a two way conversation across the Atlantic but a rich tapestry of global influences, with weird hybrids turning up in Brazil (Tropicalia), France (Ye-Ye), Italy (Big, double-pompous Prog Rock) and especially Japan, where, with their inherent knack of repurposing Western Pop for their own twisted ends, the country churned out myriad unique and messed up freak-out groups. Read more in Julian Copes excellent book Jap Rock Sampler and pick a copy of Deadly Outlaw for your first taste of Flower Travelin' Band's Black Sabbath gone groovy sound.

To give an idea of the inspired dementia fuelling the Japanese Underground in the late 60s and 70s, here's a picture that sums up the craziness. If you're in a band, it makes you ask yourself... If my lead singer doesn't have a giant fake elephant to stand on, are we trying hard enough?



Flower Travelin' Band in full bloom

[Inspector Tanzi]

Looking forward to this one, looks good. I either find his films superb or terrible. This looks like one of the decent ones.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Also looking forward to this one.
Sonny Chiba is the man!

[Sam@Cult Labs]

SONNY CHIBA ON WIKIPEDIA

[Philleh]

It's been a long time since a Miike film had this much love shown towards it! Roll on November 15th!

[Sam@Cult Labs]

He was always served on UK DVD in an incredibly patchy way. Some labels produced decent looking releases but many were sub-standard, probably because he's so prolific and when some of his movies became must-sees during that whole 'Asia Extreme' trend, his lesser works were cheap to pick up and make a quick buck off.

His films and TV shows are never dull, but I can think of a few titles I wouldn't sit through again. Deadly Outlaw isn't one of the ropey movies, I hasten to add.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Is this still due for release on Monday?

It's just that HMV haven't sent me notification that mine has shipped yet...