Was this a predecessor (or, uncredited original movie) of Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant? Daisaku Kume and Eric Satie's wistful score subverts the bent-cop cliches in 'Beat' Takeshi's film, and the director himself exudes an excellent hunched menace as the titular violent cop. At first, the relentless violence can seem somewhat unconvincing, but once acclimatised to the film's aesthetic, there is virtue to be found in its treatment of brutality.

Technical complaint; the subtitles vanished on random lines. After such instances, it became evident that it was mostly to avoid repetition, but the subtitlers (is there a technical term for this unsung but crucial job?) need to realise that every word in a screenplay counts; for example, The Big Lebowski is nowhere near as funny if you remove any "superfluous" instances of "dude" or "fuck" just for conciseness' sake. If a character utters a mumbled aside, I want to know what it means.

Part of Lise and Jonnie’s What A Wonderful World: May 30 days, 30 countries.

I can't in good conscious rate Violent Cop. I didn't finish it.

During the time that I spent with it, I was in awe of it's badness.

"Bar Hostess: So what's your line of work?
Azuma: We sell guns by mail-order. "

Takeshi Kitano plays a Dirty-Harry style rogue cop, Azuma, who often uses violence and unethical methods to get results.

While investigating a series of drug-related murders, Azuma discovers that his friend and colleague, Iwaki, is supplying drugs from within the police force. After Iwaki kills himself and Azuma's sister is kidnapped and raped and Azuma is fired from the police force Azuma goes out on a rampage.

I am a big fan of Takeshi Kitano due to his trademark ability to switch in a split second between stoic and imperturbable with sudden violent outbursts. In Violent Cop Takeshi Kitano again showed this ability with an impressive performance.

Kitano arrives reasonable fully formed. His compositions are not quite as perfect as they would be in later films and he doesn't have as many moments of tenderness. But it's still poetic and minimal with his usual flashes of violence and sense of humor.

In the end, we get his nice little blackhearted message of none of this shit mattering. A bunch of people are dead and the cycle starts all over again.

This being his first feature, Takeshi Kitano's style isn't fully formed yet. So where his later films would be measured and contemplative between bouts of jaw dropping violence, this one is often just dull. But this much is certain: even from the beginning, "Beat" Takeshi was Moe to the entire rest of the worlds' other two Stooges.

It's not perfect, but it's hard to dislike a movie where the main hero spends a full minute and a half of film slapping a man into unconsciousness...

57 out of 100
Interesting how Kitano's style of sustained Ozu like calm punctuation by matter of fact acts of hard edged violence was pretty much, as well as the tone where he'll use the calm and the violence to teeter on the edge of awkward comedy with twisted humor, and cynical tragic noir. It'd be nice here if you got a feel for any of the characters and if the plot didn't take an hour to kick into high gear, but the sheer number of memorable and beautiful set pieces places this as a pretty solid 2nd tier neo-noir. Some highlights are the best slow drawn out chase scene this side of LE ENFANT or HAYWIRE, and a finale shot in a pitch black warehouse with the action taking place in a single shaft of light. Seems like a memorably minor film, but considering Kitano had never directed before this is kind of a hell of a debut.

Was this a predecessor (or, uncredited original movie) of Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant? Daisaku Kume and Eric Satie's wistful score subverts the bent-cop cliches in 'Beat' Takeshi's film, and the director himself exudes an excellent hunched menace as the titular violent cop. At first, the relentless violence can seem somewhat unconvincing, but once acclimatised to the film's aesthetic, there is virtue to be found in its treatment of brutality.

Technical complaint; the subtitles vanished on random lines. After such instances, it became evident that it was mostly to avoid repetition, but the subtitlers (is there a technical term for this unsung but crucial job?) need to realise that every word in a screenplay counts; for example, The Big Lebowski is nowhere near as funny if you remove any "superfluous" instances of "dude" or "fuck" just for conciseness' sake. If a character utters a mumbled aside, I want to know what it means.

Brutal

I am a total mark for Kitano but I was legitimately surprised by the way this goes at the end.

Part of Lise and Jonnie’s What A Wonderful World: May 30 days, 30 countries.

I can't in good conscious rate Violent Cop. I didn't finish it.

During the time that I spent with it, I was in awe of it's badness.

"Bar Hostess: So what's your line of work?
Azuma: We sell guns by mail-order. "

Takeshi Kitano plays a Dirty-Harry style rogue cop, Azuma, who often uses violence and unethical methods to get results.

While investigating a series of drug-related murders, Azuma discovers that his friend and colleague, Iwaki, is supplying drugs from within the police force. After Iwaki kills himself and Azuma's sister is kidnapped and raped and Azuma is fired from the police force Azuma goes out on a rampage.

I am a big fan of Takeshi Kitano due to his trademark ability to switch in a split second between stoic and imperturbable with sudden violent outbursts. In Violent Cop Takeshi Kitano again showed this ability with an impressive performance.

Kitano arrives reasonable fully formed. His compositions are not quite as perfect as they would be in later films and he doesn't have as many moments of tenderness. But it's still poetic and minimal with his usual flashes of violence and sense of humor.

In the end, we get his nice little blackhearted message of none of this shit mattering. A bunch of people are dead and the cycle starts all over again.

Not to be reductive, but this feels much like a cross between Dirty Harry and Bad Lieutenant. Pretty solid stuff, although a little slow at times. Some fairly shocking violence. It seems like every third scene or so is a beatdown, and many of them are very convincing. Takeshi demonstrates an eye for some pretty fantastic shot compositions, and long takes by the camera are sometimes quite artful (one tracking a man being kicked across a rooftop to its very edge was very effective) although at other times, they can be needlessly long.