Violent Cop (1989 film)

Violent Cop (その男、凶暴につき, Sono otoko, kyōbō ni tsuki, Lit. 'That man, being violent'), also known as Warning: This Man is Wild and So No Otoko Kyobo Ni Tsuki,[1] is a 1989 Japanese film directed by and starring Takeshi Kitano.[2] It was Kitano's directorial debut, and marked the beginning of his career as a filmmaker.[3]

Violent Cop
Directed byTakeshi Kitano
Produced byShôzô Ichiyama
Toshio Nabeshima
Takio Yoshida
Written byHisashi Nozawa
Takeshi Kitano 
StarringBeat Takeshi
Music byDaisaku Kume
CinematographyYasushi Sasakibara
Edited byNobutake Kamiya
Distributed byShochiku
Release date
  • August 12, 1989 (1989-08-12)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Synopsis

Kitano plays detective Azuma, a Dirty Harry-type who uses violent methods when confronting criminals. After the suicide of his friend and colleague Iwaki (a vice cop who was involved with drugs), and the kidnapping of his sister by yakuza gangsters, Azuma breaks all the rules of ethical conduct. He responds to every situation with violence, and resorts to unethical methods if they produce results.

Cast

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.

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.[4] 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.

Reception

The movie was a moderate financial success in Japan, and also did moderately well in limited release internationally.

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.

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References
  1. The New York Times
  2. The New York Times
  3. Joan Dupont (May 20, 2011). "Takashi Miike's Heartrending Samurai Tale, Told in 3-D". The New York Times. Retrieved July 3, 2012. Quentin Tarantino played a small role in “Sukiyaki Western Django” and the great master Takeshi Kitano has appeared in his movies.
  4. ""Beat" Takeshi: The Hollywood Flashback Interview". thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com. 2008-07-26. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
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