“You trade one type of family for another,” says a wise but menacing-sounding yakuza in the official trailer for the upcoming Netflix original film The Outsider. And, as a white man in a world of Japanese organized crime, the main character in this post-WWII crime drama seems to be a fish out of water indeed.
It may take a hefty suspension of disbelief to accept the film’s premise. Yakuza syndicates would likely have little patience for such an interloper and would probably make quite short work of him. As the main character in this high-tension tale, however, Jared Leto cuts a fairly convincing and intensely stony-eyed presence. After his yakuza syndicate cellmate helps release an American soldier (Leto) from prison, the soldier repays his debt by entering the criminal underworld of Japan. And, if the trailer is to be believed, repaying this debt involves carrying out at least one or two extreme acts of violence.
Whitewashing? Maybe. But if this type of gritty historical badassery sounds like your thing, you’ll definitely want to give this a chance when it drops on Netflix this March 9th.