Kazuyoshi Okuyama

Upending cop-thriller tropes with deadpan wit, Takeshi Kitano’s directorial debut is acutely alive to how violence makes itself manifest. By turns incendiary and disconcertingly tranquil, this electrifying film explores how quickly society can become numb to everyday brutality.

In his second feature film, Takeshi Kitano dives further into Japan’s underworld by way of a baseball player turned patsy in this carefully plotted road trip lined with vengeance. Boiling Point deepens Kitano’s analysis of male violence…while also featuring one of cinema’s greatest karaoke scenes.