Takeshi “Beat” Kitano started his directing debut with Violent Cop, a Japanese police officer, detective Azuma is a loner who prefers action to filling out warrant paperwork. A troublemaker for the department superiors already, Azuma puts his badge down when he discovers that a fellow cop is in bed with the Yakuza mafia, bringing drugs in from behind the police force lines and has kidnapped his mentally unstable sister.

The film script was started as a comedy, but Kitano changed the script once he became the director, taking all comedic bits out and making the film darker and more brooding. No happy endings here. In fact, crime action has never been so well done. This isn’t a Japanese Dirty Harry movie though. The interesting choices that the characters make are minimalist in their actions, which creates the character’s thoughts in the viewer’s mind.

If you like ultra-violent movies with morality low and punishment high, Violent Cop might be your viewing pleasure.