Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply Perfect

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I find it very difficult to rate a movie like this, as most of its interest is in who made it and how it points to his much superior later movies like Hana-bi. The script here is obviously just a standard actioner - the usual elements we've all seen a million times are there, the hard man cop with his innocent rookie partner, his one weakness (in this case, his sister), his 'no nonsense get things done attitude'. But this being Kitano, its full of mysterious, compelling scenes that in themselves often don't often make sense. The ending was never really in doubt, but the fascination of Takeshi movies is how he gets there. There really is nobody out there making movies quite like him now - such weird blends of Japanese sensibility, American action tropes and European art movie editing and camera-work. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does. Violent Cop is nowhere near his best work so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone curious about watching it, but its certainly worth a view for those who have seen his later movies and want to explore his strange vision of the world.

Violent cop is an excellent film in the league of cops versus hoodlums genre.What is amazingly unique about it is that even though maverick master Kitano has always maintained close proximity to the sphere of Japanese Yakuza gangs,he has nevertheless been able to portray a concise,crisp,candid vision of the sordid milieu of the Japanese cops. While watching it,I was mesmerized by its mellifluous soundtrack which has some of the most haunting effects ever recreated for a film.As far as similarities with Dirty Harry are concerned one must look at that aspect from cultural point of view.In Kitano's film there is good deal of respect for family relations. I don't know whether the same holds true for Eastwood's film.It can be said that those liking this film will be impressed by one of its opening sequences which best exemplifies the notion that the method adopted is acceptable if the results achieved are satisfactory. All in all this film is a decent commentary about the sorry state of affairs of Japanese police system which is not at all different from those of other countries.

OK. Here is a warning to those who want to watch this movie expecting violence for the purpose of itself. Violent cop is the complete opposite.(spoilers) The story circles around a (violent) misunderstood cop seeking revenge. The main subjects are incapacity, honor and refuge into death. The movie shows us these features one by one, but also as a unit.The best part (for some viewers it could be the worst part either) of this movie it's its slowness. It's not really plot driven, which strangely is the movies true strenght. The characters don't talk a lot either, indeed no one hardly ever says more than 2 sentences in a row. Anyway it's exactly this feature, that give the viewers the chance (and time) to judge them, and give them a shape. Specially the first part of this movie constructs the characters, by showing us how they react on several situations. The second part is more action-driven, and now we can try to tell, why some of the main-figures act in a certain way. The finale is pure western scenario.

What is "Violent Cop"?A: A boring, ridiculous B-movie (bang-bang, you're dead) masquerading as "art"?B: A pathetic attempt to jolt the viewer out of his lethargy by repeated shots of graphic violence (mostly heads splattered)?C: A test by Kitano to see how long he can keep his camera still on his expressionless face, without giving us any insight into his character (apart from the fact that he's a cop, and he's violent)?D: All of the above?The choice is yours. But one thing is for sure: by the time (SPOILER WARNING) Kitano gets hit by the 15th bullet or something and still doesn't fall down, it was clear that my second experiment with his films (after the equally awful "Brother") will probably be the last.For a couple of good scenes (the foot chase and the confrontation on the roof of a building), I give "Violent Cop" *1/2 out of 4.