Violent Cop (1989)

A violence prone police officer discovers that his colleague is trafficking drugs.

Director:

Takeshi Kitano

Writer:

Hisashi Nozawa (original writer)

Stars:

Takeshi Kitano, Maiko Kawakami, Makoto Ashikawa

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Takeshi Kitano	...	Azuma (as Beat Takeshi)
Maiko Kawakami	...	Akari
Makoto Ashikawa	...	Kikuchi
Shirô Sano	...	Yoshinari
Sei Hiraizumi	...	Iwaki (as Shigeru Hiraizumi)
Mikiko Otonashi	...	Iwaki's Wife
Hakuryû	...	Kiyohiro
Ittoku Kishibe	...	Nito
Ken Yoshizawa	...	Shinkai
Hiroyuki Katsube	...	Deputy Police Chief Higuchi
Noboru Hamada	...	Chief Detective Araki
Yuuki Kawai	...	Detective Honma
Ritsuko Amano	...	Honma's Fiancee
Tarô Ishida	...	Detective Tashiro
Katsuki Muramatsu	...	Deputy Commissioner Anan

Storyline

Detective Azuma is a Dirty-Harry style rogue cop who often uses violence and unethical methods to get results. While investigating a series of drug-related homicides, Azuma discovers that his friend and colleague, Iwaki, is supplying drugs from within the police force. After Iwaki is murdered and Azuma's sister is kidnapped, he breaks all the rules to dish out his particular form of justice.

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Plot Keywords:

violence | drugs | police | detective | police officer | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

16 July 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Violent Cop

Filming Locations:

Kanagawa-Shinmachi, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Box Office

Gross USA:

$1,960, 16 May 1999

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Media Department,Shochiku-Fuji Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original script was a comedy. Takeshi Kitano was then very concerned about the audience recognizing his acting skills and he didn't feel that a comedy would allow him to act nor allow the audience to abstract from his comic TV personality. So he rewrote the script, removed all comedy and turned it into a drama.

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Quotes

[Kiyohiro has been served a search warrant.]
Kiyohiro: Dope? Where?
[Azuma pulls out an envelope and a syringe.]
Azuma: Right here.

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Crazy Credits

There are no opening credits beyond the title.

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Alternate Versions

When the film was released in Swedish cinemas in 1992, it was censored with a little more than one minute for violence, the cuts were made in the following scenes:

• The policeman getting assaulted before he gets his head crushed by a baseball bat.
• The scene where Azuma assaults Hazishume on the toilet, and the finger cutting sequence.
• The following cuts are when Azuma assaults the killer in the locker room and a bloody execution scene at the end.

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Connections

Referenced in Hellsing Ultimate: Hellsing Ultimate, Vol. 10 (2012)

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Soundtracks

Gnossienne No.1
(1890)
Main theme is an electronic variation of the above title by Erik Satie

User Reviews

violent curiosity

I find it very difficult to rate a movie like this, as most of its interest is in who made it and how it points to his much superior later movies like Hana-bi. The script here is obviously just a standard actioner - the usual elements we've all seen a million times are there, the hard man cop with his innocent rookie partner, his one weakness (in this case, his sister), his 'no nonsense get things done attitude'. But this being Kitano, its full of mysterious, compelling scenes that in themselves often don't often make sense. The ending was never really in doubt, but the fascination of Takeshi movies is how he gets there. There really is nobody out there making movies quite like him now - such weird blends of Japanese sensibility, American action tropes and European art movie editing and camera-work. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does. Violent Cop is nowhere near his best work so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone curious about watching it, but its certainly worth a view for those who have seen his later movies and want to explore his strange vision of the world.