On Aug. 12, 1989, ¡°Beat¡± Takeshi Kitano¡¯s debut as a director, ¡°Violent Cop,¡± was released in Japan. Kitano was already famous here as a TV comic and emcee, and was known abroad for his role as a brutal POW camp guard in Nagisa Oshima¡¯s 1983 World War II drama ¡°Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.¡±
But when he took over as director of ¡°Violent Cop¡± from veteran Kinji Fukasaku, who left the project due to a scheduling conflict, Kitano had had none of the usual education or training for the job.
Even so, the critics raved about ¡°Violent Cop¡± and Kitano¡¯s fans made it a modest hit. The ¡°Kinema Junpo¡± magazine annual critics¡¯ poll named it the eighth best Japanese film of the year and the Yokohama Film Festival gave Kitano its best director prize.
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