Director Takashi Miike joins the bad force in the Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo trailer

The third film in the Bad Lieutenant series takes the bad cop across the ocean and stars Shun Oguri, Lily James, and WWE Superstar Liv Morgan.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  August 3, 2026 | 7:56pm
Screenshot: YouTube
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Director Takashi Miike joins the bad force in the Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo trailer

Before there was Bad Santa, Bad Teacher, and Bad Moms, there was Bad Lieutenant. Surprisingly, since its 1992 debut, Abel Ferrara’s unflinching crime drama has grown into a loose trilogy, and it’s now an international concern. Joining the ranks of Ferrara and Werner Herzog, legendary Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike has taken charge of the Bad Lieutenant series and sent it to Japan. Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, the third installment in a loose series connected by the theme of insane police officers, finds the problems of policing abroad, and the first teaser trailer promises more mayhem from the supposedly good guys with a gun. The trailer for the film, which stars Shun Oguri (Godzilla Vs. Kong), Lily James (Pam & Tommy), and Liv Morgan (WWE Superstar), lives up to its title, teasing the tools of internal and external destruction. Here’s the official synopsis: 

“A disgraced Tokyo detective spirals into a world of corruption, addiction, and violence as he becomes entangled in a twisted investigation involving a vengeful ex-yakuza, an enigmatic FBI agent, and a missing daughter of a powerful American family.”

Abel Ferrara directed the first installment, led by Harvey Keitel, who spirals down the New York City gutter in a toxic stew of Catholic guilt, drug addiction, and old-fashioned police power trips. 2009’s surreal sequel, Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans, directed by Werner Herzog, hands the badge and gun to Nicolas Cage, whose unconventional acting drives up the humor, volume, and violence. As far as finding a director outrageous enough to compete with Ferrara and Herzog, you could do worse than Miike, who directed the extreme-horror classics Audition and Ichi The Killer. Though Ferrara did say he wishes Herzog, Cage, and the makers of the pseudo-sequel would “die in hell” and/or be “in the same streetcar, and it blows up,” so you can’t please everyone. 

Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

 
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