Shockingly, Netflix's Yakuza Film "The Outsider" Debuts to Bad Reviews
Jared Leto's new yakuza thriller The Outsider is 'baffling bad' say criticshttps://t.co/G0go0x6xFA pic.twitter.com/F2IXvpP30g
- Yahoo Movies UK (@YahooMoviesUK) March 8, 2018
- Netflix's The Outsider releases on March 9th: "An American soldier imprisoned in postwar Japan enters the dark world of the yakuza, adopting their way of life in repayment for his freedom."
- A follow up to this post, The Outsider is directed by Danish director Martin Zandvliet with the screenplay by Andrew Baldwin. Reminder that in the original draft, Baldwin wrote the opening scene featuring his straight white male avatar (the titular character) as having a bigger dick than the Japanese characters, who were trying to compare to see if it was larger than theirs "as they've heard". This scene was cut somewhere down the line.
- David Ehlrich at Indiewire said its a bad film, boring for both veterans and newcomers: “Viewers conversant in Yakuza classics will roll their eyes at the protracted scenes of Leto chopping off his own pinkies in shame, while newcomers to the genre will find plenty of their own reasons to be bored stiff."
- Karen Han of The Daily Beast called it "a culturally insensitive disaster": "On the flip side of the coin, people have countered that there’s nothing wrong with it, noting that the film’s very title is The Outsider, and that the character was written from the start as a white American man. Both points are technically true, but there’s no argument that can be made in favor of The Outsider when one watches the actual movie. It’s culturally insensitive-it might as well be the poster child for the ways the film industry continues to fail in terms of representation-and even if it weren’t, there’s no escaping the fact that it’s simply a bad movie."
- Charles Bramesco, The Guardian: "These films give lip service to a faux reverence for their subjects, but then reduce them to a collection of signifiers and monolithic character types before placing them in a position of inferiority to the white interloper. In its obsession with all things Japanese, the film places a special emphasis on the quality of humility. Nevertheless, the story ends with an elite corps of Asian assassins bowing to the former frontman for 30 Seconds to Mars."
- Sam Eichner, UrbanDaddy: "Jared Leto’s performance, like his performance in Blade Runner 2049, does not make sense. He does not so much act in this movie as model a series of wide-eyed looks that are supposed to signify stoicism (hence, my Gucci theory); he looks like a robot trying to play a human. Which isn’t his fault: Jared Leto’s character is given no interiority. He doesn’t appear to know why he’s doing anything he’s doing, because neither the writer nor director of the movie seems to care why he cares about being a Yakuza, why he hasn’t tried to go home to the U.S., or how he became the only American POW in that Osaka prison in the first place."
- Mike D'Angelo, The AV Club: "...beat for beat, one of the most tediously generic yakuza stories imaginable."
- Tadanobu Asano (who also stars in the film) said Tom Hardy was originally supposed to be the titular role. Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike was the original director, who last worked with Asano on Ichi The Killer and enlisted Hardy in the first place, but the two of them fell through. Asano is one of the producers of the film from the beginning.
- The Outsider follows the critically panned route of other Netflix films, including Bright, The Cloverfield Paradox, and Mute.
ugh, THE OUTSIDER. https://t.co/nFJPgVuD7c
- karen h. (@karenyhan) March 8, 2018
Netflix's losing streak continues with the Jared Leto-starring The Outsider https://t.co/2ZfZbjUZoG
- The Independent (@Independent) March 8, 2018
Herewith, a comprehensive list of things that make no sense in Jared Leto's new Netflix movie, #TheOutsider, which may just be the worst film of the year so far....https://t.co/c0DEOBuamd
- UrbanDaddy (@UrbanDaddy) March 8, 2018
#JaredLeto stars in the new #Netflix gangster movie #TheOutsider as a man who joins the Yakuza. If you thought that would be interesting, you thought wrong.https://t.co/XavNfgYjdr pic.twitter.com/7W3Omrp20A
- IGN (@IGN) March 8, 2018
I don't want to blow your mind or anything, but the Jared Leto yakuza Netflix movie is bad. My review of THE OUTSIDER, or GHOST SLOG: WHY? OF THE SAMURAI. https://t.co/5AztCaC4p4 pic.twitter.com/3GcufaTh9A
- Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevasse) March 8, 2018
good news, everyone! that Netflix movie where Jared Leto joins the Yakuza is somehow even worse than it sounds. my review of THE OUTSIDER: https://t.co/pAoLfbwG7x pic.twitter.com/18Z9j2El36
- david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) March 8, 2018
Netflix’s The Outsider is the generic Jared Leto yakuza thriller no one wanted https://t.co/0YlFK3Ai0l pic.twitter.com/e3OHKSG3io
- The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) March 8, 2018
The Outsider review - Jared Leto joins the yakuza in crass Netflix thriller https://t.co/l7yfSnjv3P
- Guardian US (@GuardianUS) March 8, 2018
my rage is infinite #theoutsider #netflix pic.twitter.com/SvXJIGQqxF
- martin gee (@ohmgee) March 4, 2018
Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano talks his new @Netflix film while rocking Brain Dead x Sasquatchfabrix: https://t.co/sNkkRH9yZp pic.twitter.com/UWOxBgiSUo
- Highsnobiety (@highsnobiety) March 5, 2018
THE OUTSIDER
LA PREMIER
アウトサイダー
LAプレミア pic.twitter.com/ljBJlZgVaU
- 浅野忠信 ASANO TADANOBU (@asano_tadanobu) March 7, 2018
The Outsider premier tonight🤟😘
Congratulations㊗️㊗️㊗️ @netflix pic.twitter.com/mDyqzawUCg
- kiki sukezane (@KikiSukezane) March 8, 2018
【記事】浅野忠信、椎名桔平ら出演、Netflix初の全編日本ロケ映画『アウトサイダー』の特別試写会がLAのNetflix本社で開催。
EXILE AKIRA・小林直己らが訪れた。別仕事でLAに滞在していたAKIRAは浅野も訪れていると知り急きょ来場。「世界進出って夢がありますよね」https://t.co/ThcUecQunM pic.twitter.com/lGvslvUR8W
- EXILE最新ニュース24 (@exnews24) March 8, 2018
Talked about THE OUTSIDER. https://t.co/D4TD26Dbj3
- 浅野忠信 ASANO TADANOBU (@asano_tadanobu) March 5, 2018
ONTD, do you think Netflix needs an intervention?
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