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Deadly Outlaw: Rekka
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Wikipedia article
'Deadly Outlaw: Rekka', also known as 'Violent Fire', is a 2002 Japanese yakuza film directed by Takashi Miike starring Riki Takeuchi and Sonny Chiba. Known in Japan as , it is loosely based on actor Noboru Ando's former life as a yakuza.
Plot
The half-Korean yakuza Arata Kunisada's father figure Yoshikatsu Sanada is brutally murdered by a member of the Otaki Group. Hijikata, Head Kanbu of the Bando Family, has agreed to mediate a truce between the groups, while Makajyo and Komuro, members of the Otaki group secretly conspire with Kugihara, Sanada's successor in the Sanada Group, to have their leader Chairman Otaki murdered by an expendable member of the Sanada Group in "retaliation". Kugihara suggests to Kunisada that a truce would not enable the Sanada Group to save face and Kunisada takes the bait and sets out to murder Chairman Otaki.
Kunisada and his best friend Eiichi Shimatani give severance payments to the junior yakuza Hiroshi Fujiwara, Saburo Sawada, and Tomio, telling them not to follow. Hiroshi and Saburo refuse to leave the Group and choose to remain loyal, while Tomio accepts the payment and retires from the Sanada Group. Kunisada finds Chairman Otaki at a hospital and kills him. However, members of the Otaki clan show up afterwards to kill Chairman Otaki's mistress and bodyguards. At the mediation, it is agreed between the leaders of the groups that Kugihara will allow Kunisada to be killed by members of the Otaki Group as a condition of the truce. Kugihara's right-hand man Iguchi calls Kunisada and lures him to a location to be ambushed but Kunisada and Shimatani kill the attackers. The two men send away Myung-hyung and Sung-hee, Korean prostitutes who have been tagging along with them.
Police detective Asai explains to Kunisada that the murders of Sanada and Otaki were part of a plot by Makajyo to rise to power. Already having paid them to kill Sanada, Makajyo once again hires the killers Mr. Su and Tabata to attack the Sanada Group and kill Kunisada. The killers first torture Hiroshi and Saburo, who know nothing and are killed. Kunisada shoots Igushi dead in a gambling den then fires a rocket into Bando headquarters. After Kunisada kills Makajyo by firing a rocket into his office, Mr. Su and Tabata hunt them down but fail to kill them. The films ends with the retired yakuza Tomio living a normal life doing his laundry at a laundromat.
Cast
* Riki Takeuchi - Arata Kunisada
* Ken'ichi End - Eiichi Shimatani
* Rysuke Miki - Sud
* Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi - Gor Tabata
* Rikiya Yasuoka - Masakatsu Kugihara
* Kazuya Nakayama - Tadashi Iguchi
* Joe Yamanaka - Nobuhiro Hiraoka
* Daijir Harada - Nakajo
* Shinobu Yamaguti - Hisanobu Komuro
* Sonny Chiba - Yasunori Hijikata
* Masaru Shiga - Hideaki Asai
* Mika Katsumura - Myung-hyung
* Miho Nomoto - Sung-hee
* Saki Kurihara - Akemi
* Renji Ishibashi - Otaki
* Yuya Uchida - Yoshikatsu Sanada
* Lily - Kunisada's godmother
* Tetsuro Tanba - Sanada (in Hakone)
Other credits
*Produced by
**Akira Ando - planner
**Mitsuru Kurosawa - executive producer: Toei Video
**Fujio Matsushima - associate planner
**Tsuneo Seto - producer
**Shigenori Takechi - associate planner
*Sound Department: Fusao Yuwaki - sound
*Supervisor: Noboru Ando
Notes
The entire soundtrack to this film is the album 'Satori' by Flower Travellin' Band, whose lead singer Joe Yamanaka and producer Yuya Uchida have small roles in the film.
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