Review | Broken Rage (Prime Video)

“Broken Rage starts as a serious drama before turning into a ridiculous parody making great use of Takeshi Kitano’s talents. Kitano skilfully plays with the audience’s expectations of what a film and a story should be.”

Broken Rage is a film directed and written by Japanese legend Takeshi Kitano who also stars in the film along with Tadanobu Asano (Shogun). The film premieres today on Prime Video.

PLAYING WITH THE AUDIENCE

Broken Rage follows a hitman called Nezumi (Takeshi Kitano) as he’s caught between the police and the yakuza. This starts as a serious drama but halfway through its 62-minute runtime, the film suddenly retells what happens through a parodic lens. This is unsettling at first because it subverts expectations. You are watching a drama but then it turns into a complete parody. It’s something absolutely ridiculous. You get the same story twice within the same film but with two different ways of telling it and two different endings.

Takeshi Kitano plays with the audience and with the notion of what a story and a film should be. Once you understand what is actually going on, you get to enjoy the ride. Playing like this with the medium doesn’t always work but Kitano does it in a skilful way. Indeed, he succeeds in doing what he wanted to do. It’s a way for him to rethink his position within the process of filmmaking and how he wants to address his audience. It’s an experiment that may not please everyone but if you go watching it with an open-mind, you’ll likely be receptive to it.

IT’S GOOD TO LAUGH

Whether you know him as the comedian Beat Takeshi or as an actor, everyone knows who is Takeshi Kitano. And there’s no denying he is a master at comedy. Once again he proves it with Broken Rage. He makes fun of himself and puts his character in the most ridiculous situations. It’s pure Japanese comedy gold. When the film turns into a parody, logic disappears and it’s random silliness. This film sure makes laugh. In many ways, it reminds of comedy classics like Airplane and OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. You just come for the fun and you get more than enough of that. Nowadays, we don’t get enough ridiculous films like these.

Undoubtedly, Kitano had the best of times making this film. It’s also quite nice to see Tadanobu Asano in this film as well. Like everyone in this film, he delivers a dual performance. In the first half, he’s super serious and in the second half, he’s completely unhinged. Making people cry is easy but making people laugh, that’s the tricky thing. And this cast, they sure do know how to make people laugh. They have all pulled their A-game in comedy.

VERDICT

Broken Rage starts as a serious drama before turning into a ridiculous parody making great use of Takeshi Kitano’s talents. Kitano skilfully plays with the audience’s expectations of what a film and a story should be.