In the opening five minutes of Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, which premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, Shun Oguri's Detective Yabuki (the “bad” cop in question) drops his kids off at school. He says goodbye, and immediately gets wrapped up in his own activity: taking drugs. He gets them out, puts some powder on the palm of his hand, and snorts it. Yabuki looks back up and sees his kids, along with their friends, looking into the car window and watching him as he did it. The film then abruptly cuts to a man with tattoos covering most of his back, lying face down in a bed – and missing the back half of his head. None of these events are played for laughs; Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo is earnest in its portrayal of these characters and in its telling of the story.
Directed by Takashi Miike, Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo follows the aforementioned detective as he’s tasked with solving the brutal murder of the tattooed man. More bodies start to pop up, too, and the killer is turning their flesh into circular meatballs. The film also shows Yabuki’s relationship with an American FBI agent (Lily James). Not only does he have to deal with the meatball killer, but the agent also recruits hi...