In theory, prolific director Takashi Miike seems like a perfect fit for the world of gangters and corrupt cops of Bad Lieutenant. However, what looks good on paper doesn’t always turn out to be all that it should be. I was at the recent premiere of Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo at TIFF, and the film led by Shun Oguri and Lily James…well, I’ll be nice and say it didn’t meet my high expectations.
Oguri stars as Tokyo detective Yabuki, a hard-drinking, drug-using, gambling addict who is tasked with finding the killer of a yakuza boss’s son. The woefully miscast James plays his American partner, an FBI agent with unclear motives.
Shotaro Mamiya and WWE superstar Liv Morgan complete the cast, but fans of the latter should go in without expecting much.
I can see why NEON wanted to make this movie. Abel Ferrara and Harvey Keitel’s 1992 set the bar for stories about corrupt, irredeemable cops, while Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage raised the bar with 2009’s Port of Call New Orleans. Who wouldn’t want to see the cultural specificity and ultra-violence that Miike brings?
Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo does not have a release date, but expect that to change soon.
