‘Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo’ Review: Shun Oguri and Lily James in a Meandering Franchise Entry From Takashi Miike That’s Semi-Coherent at Best

The first in a planned series of international sequels, Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo gets things off to a mostly inauspicious start, despite enlisting the magnetic Shun Oguri as the latest incarnation of the seedy, morally hollow detective to whom the films owe their title. It’s closer in terms of plot machinations to Abel Ferrara’s 1992 original with Harvey Keitel than to Werner Herzog’s wildly eccentric 2009 follow-up, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , a snug fit for Nicolas Cage’s gonzo extremes. But that doesn’t mean the choppy narrative ever gathers much steam.

What’s surprising is that prolific Japanese cult director Takashi Miike , known for explosions of operatic violence, gore and perversion in breakthrough films like Auditon and Ichi the Killer , delivers a franchise entry that aspires to be a hardboiled crime thriller but lacks the electricity to build suspense or even tension. While devout Miike-heads might feel sated by the one or two amped-up set pieces and the characteristic strain of dark humor, this is by far the weakest of the three Bad Lieutenant s. Related Stories Movies 'The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd' Review: Amanda Seyfried and Scoot McNairy Bring Raw Intensity to Tim Blake Nelson's Death Row Drama Movies 'Re/Pair' Review: David Schwimmer, W. Kamau Bell and Van Jones Lead Pragmatic Doc About the Past and Present of Black-Jewish Relations Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo The Bottom Line A sluggish neo-noir oddly lacking in tension. Venue : Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations) Cast : Shun Oguri, Lily James, Shotaro Mamiya, Liv Morgan, Jun Kunimura, Hiroshi Tachi, Shuhei Nomura, Nanase Nishino, Yuka Kouri Director : Takashi Miike Screenwriter : Daisuke Tengan Rated R, 1 hour 48 minutes

The characters played by Keitel and Cage in previous installments both experienced a drug-fueled spiritual crisis. A cynical cop with a long history of investigating the yakuza underworld, Yabuki (Oguri) doesn’t appear to have much on his mind beyond feeding his meth habit, playing ping pong and doing drugs with a couple of giggly Korean sex-workers, and keeping the loan sharks at bay as he attempts to pay off — or recklessly increase — his gambling debts. He is occasionally troubled by guilt over his role in the death of a partner 15 years earlier, but those thoughts surface in surreal dream states rather than serious self-reflection.

Yabuki’s marriage is already in such a shambles that even his preteen kids are losing their faith in him. He scarcely blinks when he comes home and finds a note from his wife saying she has left with the children and telling him not to try to find them.