News

To what extent is “Deadly Outlaw: Rekka” (aka Violent Fire) simply just another Takashi Miike yakuza flick, drenched in the overly common tropes of betrayal, inter-family politics, and vengeance? On one hand, this semi-maniacal reimagining of Shigenori Takechi’s script (previously adapted in 2001 as the gloriously epic “Agitator“) is an exercise in weirdness and in collaboration; a world occupied with familiar faces in the Miike canon, hanging out and enjoying making almost no sense whatsoever. On the other hand, it is a long overdue and extended music video to one of the most celebrated Japanese psych rock albums to ever grace a record player – Flower Travellin’ Band’s 1971 masterpiece Satori. What you have then is more than just some film: “Rekka” signifies the countercultural wheel yanking its tail and swallowing it whole, bound to an endless cycle of repetition and recurrences; for the most part it is an almighty blast to experience.