Upending cop-thriller tropes with deadpan wit, Takeshi Kitano’s directorial debut is acutely alive to how violence makes itself manifest. By turns incendiary and disconcertingly tranquil, this electrifying film explores how quickly society can become numb to everyday brutality.

In his second feature film, Takeshi Kitano dives further into Japan’s underworld by way of a baseball player turned patsy in this carefully plotted road trip lined with vengeance. Boiling Point deepens Kitano’s analysis of male violence…while also featuring one of cinema’s greatest karaoke scenes.

In this mighty finale to his Outrage series, Takeshi Kitano explores the decay and decline of the modern yakuza. The turbulent struggle across and within neighboring clans delivers darkly comic thrills, while beneath the surface of this gang war lies an indelible meditation on old age.