Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (“13 Assassins”) is one of the country’s most prolific directors with over 100 titles under his belt, working across a slew of genres. His next effort, heading to the Toronto International Film Festival next month (where the NEON pic will have its world premiere), is the third iteration of the “Bad Lieutenant” branding: “Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo,” led by actors Lily James (“Baby Driver”) and Shun Oguri (“Human Vapor”).
Thanks to folks over at IndieWire, we now have a batch of first-look images that give us and audiences a good idea of what to expect from the neo-noir film, which is expected to feature Miike’s brand of dark humor and over-the-top violence. As we had suspected, Miike’s striking visual style is already very apparent in the new stills.
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An official synopsis for “Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo” mentioned by the outlet:
“A disgraced Tokyo detective spirals into a world of corruption, addiction, and violence as he becomes entangled in a twisted investigation involving a vengeful ex-yakuza, an enigmatic FBI agent, and a missing daughter of a powerful American family.”
Others among the cast include Shotaro Mamiya, Liv Morgan, Shūhei Nomura, Nanase Nishino, Yuka Kouri, Takanori Iwata, Keisuke Watanabe, Hideo Nakano, Jun Murakami, Jun Kunimura, and Hiroshi Tachi.
The new installment takes its cues from the seminal Abel Ferrara-directed film from 1992 starring Harvey Keitel, as a degenerate NYPD cop who is in the midst of a self-destructive spiral fueled by hard drugs, sex addiction, and gambling. A second film from German filmmaker Werner Herzog continued that bat-shit crazy premise with “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” with Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage playing the crazy crack-smoking cop in that version.
You can view the first batch of first-look images from “Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo” below; we’re still waiting to hear from NEON about when the movie will make its domestic theatrical debut. Stay tuned for some footage or a trailer, which is likely the next bit of promotional material we could be getting from the highly anticipated Japanese-set thriller.
