Violent Cop (1989)

Having seen both Sonatine and Boiling, I just saw "Violent Cop on DVD. Kitano gives another stoney-faced, high-voltage performance as Azuma. The slow pacing in this case intensifies the tension and bursts of violence in the movie. Azuma's close and caring relationship with his sister adds the emotional charge to this movie. Highly recommended to fans of this genre.

Fmovies: I admit, I have fallen prey into appreciating, respecting, and even loving the style of Takeshi Kitano. With "Brother" being my first Kitano film, it was slightly difficult for me to get into his awkward directing methods. Long takes of characters moving (or sitting, or standing) lifelessly, sudden bursts of graphic violence, occasional humor, strange editing techniques, etc. It took me a while to fully appreciate his way of telling a story and developing his characters. Eventually, once I realized how it was meant to be I simply got hooked. Kitano has definitely set a name for himself as a respected filmmaker in Asian Cinema and film-making itself.

All the ass-kissing aside, I decided to check out his early stuff to see how it all started. And I must say, Violent Cop came out as a disappointment to me.

In fact, if it wasn't for a few interesting scenes and the Kitano flavored direction, I'd say it was downright HORRIBLE.

So where do we go from here? Well, I've barely seen any of Kitano's usual comedic routines in Japan, so I was able to take him seriously in this film. That's a start.

I'll try summing up what I think went wrong with this film: Kitano got a hold of a director's position for the first time, but got too excited and smeared the whole film (nervously) with his own style.

That's how it feels like watching Violent Cop. It tries too hard to be different (not saying being different is a bad thing, but it certainly feels forced in this one). I understand this was Kitano's very first effort in directing (he even acknowledges in an interview that he truly dislikes this film), but if you're more into his recent work (or anything after Violent Cop really), there's a high chance you'll be disappointed.

"The Cons": The BIGGEST issue I have with the whole film isn't the direction (it's not bad at all), it's the freaking script. The story almost goes nowhere. I had a hard time telling why many scenes were in the film (especially by the second half). It feels like they were there for the sake of being there. Maybe I'm wrong, or I don't grasp the whole "art" behind it, but it certainly felt very sloppy in this one. Don't get me wrong, the story has its moments, and it's not much confusing, but there's too much focus on the most unnecessary of things.

"The Pros": Now that I've vented my frustration with the film... The presence of Kitano's direction make up for the whole messed up script. I find the opening shot to be bizarrely riveting, and traces of the Kitano directorial spice which eventually evolved into much better films are to be found in Violent Cop. The characters were quite believable (Kitano does shine as always with showing very little emotion-besides rage, of course), some were creepy, some just really messed up (I felt truly sorry for the main character's daughter), all in all a decent acting effort. The violence was pretty satisfying, too. Also, the film contains probably the single most awesome foot/car chase I've ever seen (don't get your hopes up, though); seriously, as these mainstream films try their best to make it "breathtaking", Kitano captures it beautifully in this one. The slow music, the way we see them running from the strangest angles, the whole scene lasts over ten minutes, and it's simply really damn cool!

In the end: Check it out, it won't hurt. Though, if you've seen any of

The first 10 mins of the film already tell you what Takeshi Kitano is up to - we see a homeless man eating peacefully and enjoying the foods beside his make-shift home in a park. Suddenly his bowl is hit by a football, and then a gang of teenagers rough him up, giggling while beating up the man mercilessly until he loses conscious. Then all the kids return to their safe middle-class homes.

Kitano, the "violent cop", sees the whole thing, but he doesn't stop the kids right away. Instead, he follows one to his home, shows the kid's mother his police ID, walks up to the kid's room and starts kicking and snapping him, demanding the boy to give himself up to the police tomorrow. To me, the movie more or less ends there. The plot then moves on to the usual good-cop corrupted-cop routine, involving a sub-plot on Kitano's retarded sister. To sum up, the storyline is actually very predictable and fails to create any suspended and dramatic tension.

This is where "Violent Cop" departs from other movies of the same genre - Kitano's violence is raw and real, and he wants to show you in yer face. Unlike the highly stylized and cartoonish violence of John Woo (anything who knows a bit about guns can tell you that you cannot fire a few rounds of bullets from two guns with both hands at the same time when you're jumping off a car), for example, Kitano shows the essence of violence and how it actually affects people, both physically and psychologically.Violence, in the world of Kitano, can come suddenly, aimlessly and randomly, and no one is safe!

"Violent Cop" is an excellent movie on all counts, and Kitano (in both directing and acting) can only go above it in, IMHO, Hana-Bi.It's kind of sad (as a big fan of Kitano) to see him going back to making new movies like "Brothers", a replica in spirit (if not in actual storylines) of his early stunning successes like this one and Hana-Bi. He's actually very good in "Gohatto", and fans like me want him to know that he should try more new things.

Violent Cop fmovies. 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.

Takeshi Kitano's films that have been celebrated in the West--SONATINE and the elegant FIREWORKS--are art movies with a pulpy whiff of hickory smoke blown over them. For my money, the real Kitano is found in early pictures like BOILING POINT and this programmer, generally called in America VIOLENT COP. There's always a strange mix of art movie and pulp movie in Kitano, but in this one the balance is about fifty-fifty. Kitano's trademark style--Ozu-like tranquility pierced by chancres of irruptive violence--was never so deftly jiggered as it is here. And Kitano's own performance--log-faced yet queerly piquant--ranks with Robert Mitchum at his peak.

Violent cop is an excellent film in the league of cops versus hoodlums genre.What is amazingly unique about it is that even though maverick master Kitano has always maintained close proximity to the sphere of Japanese Yakuza gangs,he has nevertheless been able to portray a concise,crisp,candid vision of the sordid milieu of the Japanese cops. While watching it,I was mesmerized by its mellifluous soundtrack which has some of the most haunting effects ever recreated for a film.As far as similarities with Dirty Harry are concerned one must look at that aspect from cultural point of view.In Kitano's film there is good deal of respect for family relations. I don't know whether the same holds true for Eastwood's film.It can be said that those liking this film will be impressed by one of its opening sequences which best exemplifies the notion that the method adopted is acceptable if the results achieved are satisfactory. All in all this film is a decent commentary about the sorry state of affairs of Japanese police system which is not at all different from those of other countries.