Takeshi Kitano Double Play: Violent Cop & Boiling Point
A specially-priced double-feature of early films by Japanese actor and auteur director, Takeshi Kitano. Includes our acclaimed releases of Violent Cop and Boiling Point.
In his explosive directorial debut Violent Cop, Japanese renaissance man-cum-comedian-extraordinaire Takeshi "Beat" Kitano plays vicious rogue homicide Detective Azuma who takes on a sadistic crime syndicate only to discover widespread internal corruption in the police force. Facing criminal charges for his unorthodox "Dirty Harry" type methods, Azuma finds himself caught in a web of betrayal and intrigue that sends him on a bloody trail of vengeance. But when his sister is kidnapped by a sadistic drug lord, Azuma’s tactics escalate towards an apocalyptic climax.
In enfant terrible Takeshi Kitano’s explosive second feature film, Boiling Point, Masaki (Yûrei Yanagi) is an unassuming gas station attendant and amateur baseball player for underdog team The Eagles. After he enrages a local yakuza, setting off a feud between the gangsters and his coach, Masaki heads to Okinawa on a haphazard quest for guns with his friend Kazuo (Dancan). There they are befriended by the uber-eccentric yakuza boss Uehara (played by Kitano), who initiates them into the strange and brutal world of organized crime.
Blu-ray Features
- That Man is Dangerous; The Birth of Takeshi Kitano featurette
- Okinawa Days: Takeshi's Second Debut featurette
- Original Boiling Point trailer
- Violent Cop HD re-release trailer
- Collector's Booklet, featuring film essay by Tom Vick, Asian Film Curator for the Freer and Sackler Galleries (The Smithsonian's Museums of Asian Art)
Discs: 1
- "[F]or fans of unsentimental police action rooted in commentary on a society, "Violent Cop" packs a punch."
- " Exhilarating...."
- "...Takeshi displays an eye for unique, viscerally affecting ways to stage action scenes."
- "A work of varied and strange miracles."
- "I can think of no working director who uses stillness as gracefully and effectively as Takeshi Kitano."