Violent Cop (1989) on Netflix

NR19891h 43mAction Crime Drama

Azuma, a Japanese detective who beats criminals and breaks the rules, cares for his sister Akari and has gambling debts. He and his new partner Kikuchi investigate a drug dealer's murder.

Netflix3.1/5
IMDb7.1/1014,339 votes
Rotten Tomatoes83%

Trailer

Plot summary

Azuma is a police detective in Japan who uses his fists on criminals and ignores police rules, and his superiors make him write apologies instead of punishing him. He lives with his sister Akari, whom he protects, and his gambling debts keep him borrowing money. With his new partner Kikuchi, he is assigned to the murder of a drug dealer, and the two break up a drug deal in a nightclub bathroom. The seller names a fellow officer as his supplier, and Azuma is asked to help find his friend Iwaki, a vice squad detective who has gone into hiding.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Violent Cop (1989)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Takeshi Kitano, with 11 friends he called his army, marched into the offices of the scandal magazine Friday and roughed up a senior editor and four staff members; he told police he could no longer restrain himself after a Friday photographer took pictures of his female companion.
Original screenwriter Hisashi Nozawa was so unable to accept how heavily his screenplay was modified that he entered it in a competition in a Takarajimasha magazine as "Violent Cop Before it was Changed", and released a novel of it, The Moon in a Fury.
Director Kinji Fukasaku and star Takeshi Kitano butted heads over how to shoot the film; Kitano pushed for single takes, saying retakes would drain the acting of freshness and passion, and Fukasaku stepped down on producer Kazuyoshi Okuyama's recommendation.
Bandai, whose marketing slogan at the time was "Bandai for mothers and children", was hesitant to put its name on such a violent film, so it funded Violent Cop without appearing as a sponsor.