In Japan these days, the political world seems to be mirroring "Beat" Takeshi Kitano's latest yakuza film, "Outrage Beyond," which depicts Japan's ruling party as being well and truly in bed with the mob.
If you've been paying attention to the news lately, that will sound familiar. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but sometimes fiction tells the truth first.
Certainly this second film in the "Outrage" series, which seems loosely based on the rise and fall of the Inagawa-kai, Japan's third-largest crime group, may be a little too close for comfort for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. In the first 10 minutes of the film, an underling of the Chief Cabinet Secretary makes a covert visit to the No. 2 in the Sanno-kai crime group, and timidly voices his boss' desire to cut ties to the mob.