Violent Cop (1989 film)

Violent Cop (その男、凶暴につき) is a 1989 Japanese neo-noir action thriller film directed by Takeshi Kitano, written by Kitano and Hisashi Nozawa, and starring Kitano, Maiko Kawakami, Makoto Ashikawa, Hakuryu, Ken Yoshizawa, and Ittoku Kishibe. It follows Azuma, a Japanese police detective known for his rough and unprofessional conduct, after he is assigned to investigate drug trafficking by the yakuza. It was Kitano's directorial debut, and marked the beginning of his career as a filmmaker.

Plot
Azuma is a police detective who lives with his intellectually disabled sister Akari (of whom he is very protective) and has a gambling problem that forces him to constantly borrow money. He also has a strong sense of morality and a reputation for using excessive violence when dealing with criminals, ignoring police rules and regulations when they become inconvenient; for instance, after witnessing a gang of teenage boys beat up a homeless man for fun, he enters the home of the gang's leader and beats him before making him promise to turn himself and his friends in, which he does the next day. Azuma's superiors, who admire him for his ability to get results, overlook his constant violations of the police code by making him write "apologies" whenever he does something unlawful.

Azuma and his new partner Kikuchi are assigned to investigate the murder of a drug dealer, and break up an attempted drug deal in the bathroom of a nightclub. The seller, who works for yakuza boss Nito, names Azuma's close friend Iwaki, a vice squad detective, as his supplier. Azuma is subsequently asked to help find Iwaki, who has seemingly gone into hiding due to newspapers uncovering his ties to the yakuza, but a fisherman finds Iwaki's corpse hanging from a noose under a bridge. Refusing to believe that his friend committed suicide, Azuma attempts to track down the dealers from before, but both men are executed by sociopathic yakuza hitman Kiyohiro. Unable to take action against the well-connected Nito, Azuma plants drugs in Kiyohiro's apartment, apprehends him, and tortures him for information in the police station. However, this angers the police deputy chief, who forces Azuma to resign to protect the force from investigation.

Azuma spends his first day of unemployment doing what he pleases in town, but Kiyohiro and his men use the opportunity to kidnap Akari and bring her to their hideout, where they take turns raping her and getting her hooked on drugs. Kiyohiro also defies Nito's orders and tries to stab Azuma on a busy street; Azuma grabs the knife and Kiyohiro pulls a gun, accidentally killing a young woman when his shot misses, while Azuma manages to stab Kiyohiro in the leg and escapes. The next day, he purchases ammo and an unregistered firearm from a friend at the gambling parlor and practices shooting it, preparing to battle Kiyohiro.

Knowing Azuma is coming, Kiyohiro orders his men to arm themselves for a shootout but, finding they are unwilling to fight, executes two of them, while the third attempts to flee Kiyohiro's wrath but is gunned down by Azuma when he arrives. In the ensuing gunfight, Kiyohiro manages to shoot Azuma with multiple guns, but is shot and killed by him when he tries to find another. Azuma finally reunites with Akari, but finds she is now hopelessly addicted to drugs to the point of searching Kiyohiro's corpse for more, and he chooses to mercy kill her with his final bullet. A badly-wounded Azuma begins to leave, but is killed by Shinkai, Nito's former advisor, as revenge for Azuma killing Nito under the mistaken belief that he had ordered Kiyohiro to go after Akari.

Sometime later, Kikuchi, now a senior vice detective, meets with Shinkai, who explains that with the heat surrounding Azuma's actions dying down, he wants Kikuchi to take over for Iwaki and continue to sell drugs through the police force. Kikuchi eagerly accepts Shinkai's offer and leaves.

Cast

 * Takeshi Kitano as Azuma
 * Maiko Kawakami as Akari
 * Makoto Ashikawa as Kikuchi
 * Shirō Sano as Yoshinari
 * Sei Hiraizumi as Iwaki
 * Mikiko Otonashi as Iwaki's wife
 * Hakuryu as Kiyohiro
 * Ittoku Kishibe as Nito
 * Ken Yoshizawa as Shinkai
 * Nobuyuki Katsube as Deputy Police Chief Higuchi
 * Akira Hamada as Chief Detective Araki
 * Yuuki Kawai as Detective Honma
 * Ritsuko Amano as Honma's Fiancée
 * Tarō Ishida as Detective Tashiro
 * Kenichi Endō as Emoto
 * Susumu Terajima as Oda

Title
The Japanese title is the same as that given to the Japanese translation, by Makoto Sawa (佐和誠), of James Hadley Chase's 1968 novel Believed Violent, published by Tokyo Sogen-sha (東京創元社)  in the Sogen Mystery Library  (Sogen suiri bunko: 創元推理文庫) series in June 1972. The phrase「その男、凶暴につき」appears to suggest the wording of a police wanted poster ("This man, because of his extreme violence [should not be approached]"), but does not usually appear on Japanese wanted posters (shimei tehai: 指名手配), and may have been Sawa's own rendering of the English original.

After the movie, the title has been widely parodied in comics, magazine articles, books, etc. For example America's Most Dangerous Pets was translated as Kono Petto Kyōbō Ni Tsuki, with "pet" instead of "man".

Production
Although Kinji Fukasaku was the film's original director, he stepped down over a scheduling conflict due to Kitano's TV commitments. The distributor suggested the comedian direct it at his own pace, and Kitano accepted. The screenplay was originally written by Hisashi Nozawa, but upon taking over as director Kitano rewrote the script heavily. Despite his contributions to the screenplay, he was left uncredited as a contributing writer.

The film was originally meant to be a comedy but Kitano wanted to try being a serious actor, therefore he made the movie into a police drama.

Soundtrack
The piano theme heard several times during the movie is Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No.1". The nightclub scene briefly features the Hi-NRG/Europop song "The Girl You Need" by Tracey. "Long Road" by Roots Radics is the Reggae track playing on the yakuza cassette player.

Reception
Violent Cop has an approval rating of 83% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The movie was a moderate financial success in Japan, and also did moderately well in limited release internationally.