Rating: 
Summary: One of the best action flicks you never heard of
Review: Violent Cop is one of the best action films that most people have never heard of. This 1989 release from director 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine, Hana-Bi) is an intense and gloomy exercise in both action film aesthetics and in-depth character study. The story centers on Detective Azuma (Takeshi Kitano), a moody, introspective cop who's a throwback to a different era - one where cops sought justice no matter what the cost. After being assigned a rookie partner, Azuma is called upon to investigate the stabbing of a low-level street dealer. The dealer has been killed by a vicious drug cartel - one pumping a steady supply of drugs into the community, and keeping crooked cops on its payroll...including Azuma's best friend. In typical Dirty Harry fashion (which this film was clearly inspired by), Azuma must bring them down - no matter what the cost. Takeshi is mesmerizing in the film's lead role. He's a stoic individual with a definite no-nonsense approach to his job. From the film's opening - where Azuma smacks around a kid for beating up an old man - until the climactic shootout, Takeshi's character earns the "violent cop" moniker. Takeshi's direction is equally inspired. There are no overt camera movements or fancy film techniques at work in Violent Cop, but that perfectly fits the mood of the film. Azuma isn't a flashy, Chow Yun-Fat, kind of character. Also impressive are the film's action scenes. There's no John Woo style gunplay or diving about, but there is an intense and savage undertone to many of the sequences. Azuma will plant evidence, beat witnesses, and go as far as murder if it helps him get his man. In the end, Violent Cop is more than the sum of its parts. Yes, it's an action film, but the action itself is rarely the over-the-top kind of glamorized savagery that Hollywood and Hong Kong give their audiences. Violent Cop won't appeal to everyone, but those who are interested in seeing an action film that deals with real human issues should find something appealing in it.
Rating:
Summary: RISING GUN
Review: VIOLENT COP is the first movie directed by japanese actor/director Takeshi Kitano in 1989 and the film is a very good surprise for the Film Noir amateur. As often in japanese movies, silences are more meaningful than dialogs but physical violence is filmed with a scalpel objective when necessary. The movie is resolutely pessimistic from its first scene to the last images. The first minutes of VIOLENT COP will make you feel very uneasy, the director destroying in two scenes the universal phantasm of the innocence of childhood. In order to let the audience breathe a little, Kitano brings a little humor in the relations between the old cop and its new partner, a rookie who has chosen to learn the job by following him. Takeshi Kitano has without a doubt a style of his own and the final duel involving all the characters still alive is a piece of anthology that stands masterfully the comparison with the final à la John Woo or à la Quentin Tarantino that have invaded our screens from the beginning of the 90's on. A DVD zone Dirty Harry.
Rating:
Summary: kitano's directorial debut ain't 4 the faint hearted
Review: VIOLENT COP is the most disturbing cop flick i have ever seen yet it is the most powerful. it's also very wild, very wacky, very funny and of course hyperviolent. 'beat' takeshi (his screen name) is a cop who REALLY breaks the rules and brings police brutality to new heights. there is also a tender side as kitano cares for his mentally unstable sister. towards the film's brutal last 1/2 hr, she gets kidnapped, raped and drugged by heroin dealers. you won't believe what kitano does to her in the last 5 minutes + what happens to 'beat' in that timespan! as 1 character sums it up perfectly, "everybody's crazy!" VIOLENT COP contains the strangest, wackiest car/foot chase ever put on film as 'beat' chases a baseball bat wielding nut thru the residential streets of japan. you expect an action music score? nope! A JAZZ SCORE! the big suits in Hollywood wouldn't think of something like that. God Bless Takeshi. the chase ends with 'beat' not only kicking the injured suspect but stomping on his own dumb rookie partner! check out the fight scene between 'beat' and the film's main villain: a vicious, slimy, sweater loving, homosexual druglord named nito. it's the battle of the sweaters between them in a brutal bare fists/gun/knife fight. this film is great stuff; it is a classic. perfect for the kitano library like SONATINE, FIREWORKS, KIKUJIRO, and hopefully his newest films BROTHER (out may 11) and BATTLE ROYALE (late 2001). forget the boring BOILING POINT.
Rating:
Summary: kitano's directorial debut ain't 4 the faint hearted
Review: VIOLENT COP is the most disturbing cop flick i have ever seen yet it is the most powerful. it's also very wild, very wacky, very funny and of course hyperviolent. 'beat' takeshi (his screen name) is a cop who REALLY breaks the rules and brings police brutality to new heights. there is also a tender side as kitano cares for his mentally unstable sister. towards the film's brutal last 1/2 hr, she gets kidnapped, raped and drugged by heroin dealers. you won't believe what kitano does to her in the last 5 minutes + what happens to 'beat' in that timespan! as 1 character sums it up perfectly, "everybody's crazy!" VIOLENT COP contains the strangest, wackiest car/foot chase ever put on film as 'beat' chases a baseball bat wielding nut thru the residential streets of japan. you expect an action music score? nope! A JAZZ SCORE! the big suits in Hollywood wouldn't think of something like that. God Bless Takeshi. the chase ends with 'beat' not only kicking the injured suspect but stomping on his own dumb rookie partner! check out the fight scene between 'beat' and the film's main villain: a vicious, slimy, sweater loving, homosexual druglord named nito. it's the battle of the sweaters between them in a brutal bare fists/gun/knife fight. this film is great stuff; it is a classic. perfect for the kitano library like SONATINE, FIREWORKS, KIKUJIRO, and hopefully his newest films BROTHER (out may 11) and BATTLE ROYALE (late 2001). forget the boring BOILING POINT.
Rating:
Summary: Violence, silence-Kitano has it all
Review: ~Directing; staring;writing, Beat Takeshi does it all and by far makes films that are supreme in the world of cinema and Beat Takeshi's Violent Cop is no exception. Begining the film Takeshi, a hardened and ruthless cop,enters the home of a young teenager that, having witnessed it and doing nothing to stop it, Takeshi forces him to confess hi killing of an old tramp. This is where we see Kitano fully as a cold and ruthless man. After this Kitano continues with his normal police life and finds~~ that one of his only friends is no the take of criminals. As he continues to investigate the crimes of the criminal lord a hitman, who is just as cold and ruthless as Kitano himself, as well as being psycotic, is sent after him. The story unfolds as Kitano beats up the criminals to a bloodey pulp; takes care of his mentaly-slow sister; is watched over and contasted with the young and hopeful police man that he is partnered with; and continues to pursue the criminal lord. The end result,~~ as Kitano is thrown off the force and left to the psycotic revenge of the hitman, is bloodey and unforgetable as they go head to head against each other being as they am one ruthless man to another. Violent Cop is wonderfuly directed and is as cold as it spectacular, Beat Takeshi not only delivers pioneering direction but also makes a trade-mark acting role that by my standards is a cult classic. Fans of original and creative film-making will love this film and to those that do enjoy the~~ film I would also advise that they watch 'Hana-Bi', or Fire Works; 'Sonatine'; and 'Boiling Point'.~
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