#TIFF26: “BAD LIEUTENANT: TOKYO” REVIEW

By David Baldwin

Detective Lieutenant Yabuki (Shun Oguri) once had connections with the Yakuza before they were forced underground. Now he is haunted by old memories, addicted to drugs and gambling and his wife just packed up the kids and bailed. Yabuki gets paired off with an FBI Agent (Lilly James to find the missing daughter of a Vice President hopeful, and in the process, gets mixed up with a serial killer from his past.

For such an intricate description, it pains me to say that BAD LIEUTENANT: TOKYO is a bit of a drag. Following in the footsteps of previous TIFF entries Bad Lieutenant and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, prolific Director Takashi Miike takes on the loosely connected series by adding his signature neon panaches and extreme graphic violence. But outside of a few action sequences including a really odd, sexually charged fight scene in a club, the film moves from one moment to the next with no real sense of urgency, propelled by endless exposition, backstory and the titular BAD LIEUTENANT getting high or receiving blowjobs from a pair of late night paramours (who bafflingly factor into a pretty big plot point in the third act). I was intrigued by some of the places it goes, though I wish it was a hell of a lot more exciting.

Oguri does what he can to make Yabuki as sleazy and deplorable of a garbage human being as possible. He succeeds often, yet we never really understand how he got to the point he is at or why he does some of the things he does. He just sort of does them. And though I did not dislike her as much as others, it is clear from the jump that James is out of her comfort zone here. Her Southern drawl is certainly a choice, as is the way she smokes a literal ton of cigarettes. That said, I thought she did fine in the part, if a little rough around the edges. She continues to grow as an actress and I would rather see her try something wildly out of left field like this than stay stagnant. Hopefully she will break bad again soon.

BAD LIEUTENANT: TOKYO screens at TIFF ‘26:

Mon. Sept 14 at 8:30 PM at Royal Alexandra Theatre

Tues. Sept 15 at 9:40 PM at Scotiabank Theatre

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