Rent Violent Cop (1989)

Makes Reservoir Dogs seem like childs play. - Violent Cop review by CP Customer

Violent Cop revolves around the character of Azuma, a police detective who runs out of patience and resorts to violence and unethical methods to get results. Under pressure from an increasingly heavy workload, Azuma is put under further stress when assigned an inexperienced new partner. Finally reaching breaking point when a fellow cop is killed and drug dealers take his sister hostage, he then decides to take matters into his own hands and dish out his own form of justice. Although 'Violent Cop' isn't considered by many as a true Kitano film, as in he didn't write it and only took over as director when original director Kinji Fukasaku pulled out of the film at the last minute, it is still a truly enjoyable film that takes a bleak and gritty look at a man on the edge, and while it lacks the wit and beauty of Kitano's later films, it easily ranks among the best within modern Japanese cinema.

Beat Crazy - Violent Cop review by Steve

This is the beginning of Takeshi Kitano's weird '90s cult of Japanese gangster-noirs. His debut as writer/director/star is a fusion of extreme brutality and whimsical comedy. When the violent cop (Kitano) is slapping the idiot Yakuza heavies at length, it's more like the Three Stooges than Reservoir Dogs (1992).

This is as derivative as Quentin Tarantino. It borrows most from the high style of Sergio Leone's westerns. Kitano's performance draws on Clint Eastwood's impassive, laconic tough guy persona, but to such an extreme he's barely acting at all. Especially in the long closeups of his lugubrious thousand-yard stare...

There are also echoes of Dirty Harry (1971) as the blunt maverick is impeded by a procedural, liberal boss while he strives to take down a ruthless killer by unorthodox means, and damn the paperwork. Kitano doesn't tell the story with much coherence but the events are held together by his mute charisma.

Which leads to a climactic showdown as the cop goes vigilante in a shootout with Shirô Sano, who is effectively repellant as a sociopathic hitman. Kitano's eccentric approach appeals to both the arthouse and the multiplex. Despite its many influences, this is a truly unorthodox action picture.

*includes an extended sexual assault.