Kitano rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo and becoming one of the three biggest comedians in the country. After several small acting roles, he made his directorial debut with 1989's Violent Cop and garnered international acclaim for Sonatine (1993). He was not widely accepted as an accomplished director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda. Violent Cop (1989) original poster. In 1989 Kitano was set to star in a police thriller that was to be directed by gangster film veteran Kinji Fukasaku . When Fukasaku had to leave the film, the film's producers offered Kitano the directing chores. He reworked the script and the result was Violent Cop , a deliriously violent masterpiece that brought him recognition in the international film community. With this film Kitano would introduce his lean directorial styl...