Japanese wanted posters (shimei tehai: 指名手配), and may have been Sawa's own rendering of the English original. Production Although Kinji Fukasaku was the film's original director, he stepped down over a scheduling conflict due to Kitano's TV commitments. The distributor suggested the comedian direct it at his own pace, and Kitano accepted. The screenplay was originally written by Hisashi Nozawa, but upon taking over as director Kitano rewrote the script heavily. Despite his contributions to the screenplay, he was left uncredited as a contributing writer. The film was originally meant to be a comedy but Kitano wanted to try being a serious actor, therefore he made the movie into a police drama. Reception The movie was a moderate financial success in Japan, and also did moderately well in limited release internationally. Soundtrack The piano theme heard several times during the movie is Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No.1". The nightclub scene briefly features the Hi-NRG/Europop song "The Girl You Need" by Tracey. "Long Road" by Roots Radics is the Reggae track playing on the Yakuza cassette player. References External links Violent Cop at the Japanese Movie Database http://www.kitanotakeshi.com/index.php?content=filmography&show_film&id=21 1989 action thriller films Films about the illegal drug trade Japanese action thriller films Japanese neo-noir films Japanese splatter films Yakuza films 1989 directorial debut films Films directed by Takeshi Kitano Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in fiction 1980s Japanese films