Takashi Miike understands the assignment in Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo trailer

The king of Japanese ultra-violence picks up the badge and gun from Werner Herzog and Abel Ferrara.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  September 14, 2026 | 5:33pm
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Takashi Miike understands the assignment in Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo trailer

There’s perhaps no one better to continue the bugnuts legacy of Bad Lieutenant than Takashi Miike. The director of such disgusting classics as Audition and Ichi The Killer brings his firehose of blood to the coke-snorting antics of the series. The latest trailer for Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, the third in the series, is a quick succession of highly stylized salaciousness, anchored by a proprietary rap song, something more movies should start doing again.

Like previous Bad Lieutenants, this one follows a disgraced detective as he circles the drain of society, finding himself in a world of corruption, addiction, and violence. That only exacerbates as he becomes entangled in an investigation into an ex-Yakuza, an FBI agent, and the missing daughter of a powerful American family. Taking the mantle from Nicolas Cage and Harvey Keitel is Shun Oguri, whom American audiences may remember from Godzilla Vs. Kong. He’ll be joined by Cliffhanger Lily James and former WWE Women’s Champion Liv Morgan.

Bad Lieutenant is making its North American debut at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, with a stateside release sometime soon.

 

 
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