Violent Cop (1989)

Brutality

I went from watching a classic film like Sonatine to a movie of violent curiosity like Violent Cop. It was Takeshi Kitano directorial debut as long-time director Kinji Fukasaku walked off the project short notice in 1988. If you do not know already from Kitano's biography, he was a famed TV chat show host, author, actor, and comedian in Japan. Few thought the film would do well, considering it was his first time directing, and you cannot predict what type of creative control these first time directors take.

Violent Cop is arguably one of the rawest and "unorthodox cop" premises. Kitano stone-faced performance as Azuma is brilliant in this slow-moving film full of mysterious and compelling scenes. In general, all the actors do a spellbinding job. The soundtrack was not the most haunting, but it had effects that left me in awe. Even though the motion picture is an over-dramatization of the police force in Japan back in the late 1980s, it depicts the dark comedy of the state of affairs of the Japanese police system not, all that different from other countries at the time, and maybe today. Some filmgoers might misunderstand this violent world with no rationality. I would recommend this if you are able to stomach the violence.

I have seen this film three times and even though my rewatch value is 6.5. I would watch this again.
Final Rating 8.507

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