Overall I liked it but it could have been so much better. It's a little boggling that they went through the effort to get a great cast, made fantastic sets/wardrobe, had a soundtrack that set a good atmosphere and then went with a generic "Gaijin joins the Yakuza and Yakuza's harder then everyone else. " They did great conveying the idealized Yakuza themes of honor and brotherhood but the story itself just lacked any real punch. A little more character development, any deviation from what you were expecting or even a different ending would have done wonders to the film overall. The movie just didn't want to take any risks so it just ends up being very well done but bland.
Review of The Outsider
