Detective Azuma has been shuffled around police precincts for years due to his effective but "unpleasant" methods. Another Chief and another warning comes his way but he does not change. Events conspire to make his violent and direct methods an important part of a drugs case, however his progress quickly reveals deals and conspiracies behind the racket that not only threaten him and his colleagues but also his mental ill sister Akari Hard to imagine this film being delivered for laughs but this is how it could have been had Kitano not been able to step into the director role and rewrite the script to take the comedy elements out and leave a standard "tough cop" plot behind. Instead what we get is a stark and tough story that is engaging in its minimalist approach to delivering a story. On paper and in terms of dialogue (as far as I could see – more later) the story was reasonably straightforward although does have a good ending that I didn't see coming in several regards. What makes it more than that though is the delivery from Kitano. In directing he establishes his visual style and blunt depiction of violence with long takes, sudden violence and a lack of glamorisation that many similar films do as standard. The plot may be simple but in holding back from stating the obvious, the film gives the characters more room to breathe, or rather develop, within the minds of the viewer; so a diner meeting is shot in silence from across the street or Azuma's pain at the end is played out in his actions not in an "Oscar-bid" style scene for the actor.This approach works really well and I was surprised by how engaging the film was considering how standard the plot was and how little dialogue there often was to carry it. While he visually produces an unique feel, Kitano also broke away from his comedy face and delivered the hard, superficially cold performance of few words that he is now known for. He drives the film and it is him who holds the eye anytime he is on screen. He is well supported by Kawakami, Ashikawa and others but really they do not have the material to impress and tend more to be in the genre film that Kitano otherwise manages to avoid.A quick word about the DVD copy I watched (which was fully legal from LoveFilm and not a copy). Although it seemed to get better as it went on, it is generally a poor job. The picture quality is low although you do get used to it but of more irritation for the first half are the subtitles. For the guts of the film the subtitles seem to miss one of every three sentences at random; OK the next line often makes it easy to work out what was just said but it was very frustrating and quite inexplicable to me. This is not a fault of the film though, and it is well worth seeing. Delivered in the style we have come to love from Kitano, the stark delivery, patient and minimalist visual style and his restrained silent acting, he makes this film and it is understandable why this film gave him many more opportunities afterwards.

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.

Warning - possible spoilers!My IMDB research tells that 'Violent Cop' is the first directing work of Takeshi Kitano, one of the personalities of the Japanese film industry. I have not seen any of his other films, but I am now very curious to do it. If this is a debut film, then the following works may be very good indeed. This is a story and a film not for the weak too watch. If there was a triple R rating for violence this film would have gotten it, and Terentino seems to have seen it before doing some of his tough stuff. The main character is really as violent as the title says it, but he also has the moral integrity in fighting crime that places him on the good side of the balance, and will lead him to an inevitable dark end. You can look at the film as a moral commentary like 'violence leads to violence, even if it is done in the name of a good cause' or as a tough social comment on todays Japan moral and social structure. To illustrate this - in the last scene the new cop is seen talking with the new mafia boss - 'Peace' has returned and the world is back to 'normal' - meaning corruption and crime leave peacefully among us.The film has some astonishing camera takes, and a remarkable soundtrack. Despite its beauty it is not easy to watch, and not only because of the graphical violence. Too many characters compete on the screen and seem to disappear before making any point. Some scenes lack elementary logic (e.g. how can a cop get into the office of the mafia boss with a weapon and gun down the chief mafioso without any of the guards showing anything but Japanese serenity?). These downfalls prevent the film from entering in the best marks area, and it gets only a 7 out of 10 on my personal scale. However, I will look for this artist's later work - this is sure.

Violent Cop (1989) is a film about a shady and brutal Japanese Inspector who's always at odds with his bosses and colleagues. One day he's assigned a new idealistic partner. Takeshi Kitano is the Violent Cop and he's very credible as the hard as nails s.o.b. He makes Dirty Harry look like a wuss. Kitano's mean as a snake and does whatever he can to get either a confession or information from an unwilling suspect. Not only does Kitano have a new partner to watch out for but he has to take care of his batty sister. Great film. If you like cop movies, then you'll love this one. Look for the uncut international version, I highly doubt it you'll want to see this one cut. I like this picture, it keeps it's promise and delivers the goods.Highly recommended for the nihilism and ultra violence.