Review of The Outsider (2018) by Sharp_Katana — 29 Mar 2018

"The Outsider" is great. Not perfect, not without problems and certainly not the only history lesson you should take if you are interested in Japan and Yakuza.

But it does not deserve that harsh judgement that you can find by almost every "professional" critic. To me it almost seems like the critics rate it bad just because it is a Netflix movie.

"The Outsider" is a violent film depicting a more or less traditional organized crime story. If you are not into this, I would not recommend watching it, but that does not make it a bad film, just a matter of taste.

It builds up quite some tension in the beginning and the rather silent attitude of Nick Lowell (characterized by Jared Leto) induces a thrilling experience.

As a character he appears as a person that adapts quickly to his current situation. We never learn how he actually feels about it and you might call this a shallow character, but similar to film noirs he is doing what needs to be done and leaves its judgement to the watcher.

I totally agree that his late rise in the very last scene destroys a lot of what the movie could have been. But the plot does in no way necessarily lead to this ending. Just skip the last 30s or so.

There was a lot of criticism that this story looks like a white savior story. But then again, no. It sure has similarities with "The Last Samurai" from 2003, but in some ways it is more honest. The last scene left aside, I would not have thought that the motive of a white Yakuzi saving his clan was the main idea behind it.

Actually, his importance for the main happenings in the film is another one. He is not influencing the actions of the Shiromatsu Yakuza clan in any way, but rather follows their concepts and adapts (admittingly a bit too well) to their traditions (literally as their "white dog"). By being accepted in the clan he pisses off another member which leads to a fatal showdown. There is no importance there in he being white other than that western people might not watch this movie as easily as when it exclusively had Japanese actors.

What we see in this movie is a clash of an established and an uprising Yakuza clan. The former follows the old traditions and Nick appears as the only attempt to allow a foreigner into this world as long as he abides by their rules. The other clan has more modern concepts seemingly influenced by political and economical changes after WWII. Who wins it in the end? We do not know. While American influence seems to have changed the structures of organized crime in Japan, we see that traditional Japanese ways (at least what the Western world associates with it) still have worth even for the rivalling clan and Western people can adopt them for good.

It would be really interesting to listen to the opinions of Japanese critics. There is a resemblance to "The Last Samurai", but it is definitely less "Disney" and its main character is way less important. So maybe this movie never intended to send a strong message at all. Maybe it just wants to be dark movie for entertainment. And I think it is doing this very well.