Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo (2026) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 10 November 2026 · The Pros 50 · The Punters 54 · Spore Score 51 · How we write our takes

Where The Pros and The Punters land

Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo is a crystal clear film. The Pros give it 50, The Punters 54, and the Spore Score is 51. Both camps are lukewarm. One caveat before you trust that number too much: this film has had far fewer reviews and ratings than most new releases, and the Spore Score is built from just 2 sources. Expect it to move as more people see it.

What it is

This is the third film in a loose series about corrupt police officers. Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant in 1992 starred Harvey Keitel as a New York cop in moral freefall. Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans in 2009 gave Nicolas Cage one of his wildest roles. Now Takashi Miike, the hugely prolific Japanese director of Audition and 13 Assassins, takes the idea to Tokyo. Shun Oguri plays a Tokyo police officer and compulsive gambler who gets caught up in an investigation when an FBI agent arrives in Japan after a politician's daughter disappears. Lily James, Shotaro Mamiya, Jun Kunimura and the wrestler Liv Morgan are in the cast. The script is by Daisuke Tengan, who also wrote Audition and 13 Assassins for Miike.

What it does well

The series has always been about directors, not continuity, and Miike brings his own anything-goes energy. Oguri commits fully to a man who keeps making worse decisions, and the Tokyo underworld, with its gambling dens and a deviant killer moving through yakuza territory, gives Miike plenty of chances to be outrageous. At its best, that is the queasy, unpredictable territory where Miike thrives.

Where it falls short

Mixing an American FBI thread with a Japanese police drama gives the film two centres of gravity, and neither gets enough room. The early reviews are mixed, and the excess that makes Miike exciting can also make his films exhausting. If you come for Keitel-style despair or Cage-style madness, you may feel this one sits somewhere less interesting in between.

Who it is for

Miike completists, fans of Japanese crime cinema and anyone curious about how the Bad Lieutenant idea travels. Not a first Miike film: start with Audition or 13 Assassins.

Context

Producer Edward R. Pressman, who backed the earlier films, had long planned a run of international Bad Lieutenant stories, and his son Sam Pressman produced this one with Jeremy Thomas. It was shot in Japan in 2025, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 2026, and opened in Japanese cinemas on 23 October 2026. Neon is handling distribution.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Hit and miss, with a Spore Score of 51. A curious, uneven entry in an odd little franchise. Worth a look for Miike fans, but we would wait for more reviews, and for streaming, before making a special trip.