Less interesting that its reputation suggests.

Everybody's crazy.

Straight-forward nihilism.

a nice little subversion of the "renegade-cop-plays-by-his-own-rules" film.

It's like Bad Lieutenant but, you know, without the Catholicism. In the result, it sacrifices the former's gritty aesthetic and philosophical themes for something more nihilistic; this would be fine but it's not particularly well-captured or explored. It gets a bump for the Erik Satie music, I guess, but nothing's gonna top Harvey Keitel dancing naked to Pledging My Love.

Dark, and increasingly intense. Some good stuff.

Low-voiced on the outside, explosive on the inside... Sore and unique; a masterpiece.

Obviously sets up Takeshi's style for future works. All his trademarks are here, but could use more polish as we see in his later work. A few really good shots, funny beats, and demonstration of corrupting cycles of violence and greed. He gives a surprisingly more articulate commentary on the themes then you would expect at the end. The extent to which things go super nihilistic by the end is ridiculous, but also believable if you bought everything else that came before it.

Pretty good.

If Takeshi Kitano's directorial debut lacks the elegance of his later work, don't blame him too much. He took over the project when Kinji Fukasaku abandoned it. Violent Cop traffics in all the clichés of the "loose cannon" cop story, but manages to bring a few surprises to the table as well. The nihilistic climax is dynamite, and I liked how the antagonist was sort of a mirror "loose cannon" on the yakuza side. The over-the-top brutality of Kitano's character provided some funny moments.

Incredibly dissapointing. Violence there was, but not enough. Should have been named "Staring Contest".

My favourite of Takeshi Kitano's films.

Nihilistic and very violent. Kitano's first directorial effort.

It's interesting to see the 'maverick cop' trope from a Japanese perspective, and there's a great chase scene that takes you through a ton of cramped urban terrain. Kitano himself is as charismatic as always. The whole thing with his sister seemed a little too perfect and coincidental to me, but it's generally a strong film.