Ben Marra Creates New Poster For Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Violent Cop’

Whenever I think about Ben Marra's comics, which is often, the one thing that always comes to mind is how well it captures the style of the VHS era. With his work on self-published titles like Night Business and OMWOT: One Man War On Terror, Marra's been doing his level best to evoke that sleazy, neon-soaked aesthetic of walking through the aisle at the local video store in the late '90s, full of boxes that haven't left my imagination in 20 years.

It makes sense, then, that when it came time to re-release Takeshi Kitano's Violent Cop, the landmark 1989 yakuza film about a policeman pushed over the edge when his sister is kidnapped, Film Movement decided to tap Marra to create a new poster to accompany the feature.

Violent Cop marked the directorial debut of "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, who was previously best known for his work as a comedian, and started him down the path to becoming a acclaimed dramatic filmmaker who has been favorably compared to Akira Kurosawa. Here's the official description from Film Movement:

Kitano stars as Detective Azuma, a Dirty-Harry style rogue cop who often uses violence and unethical methods to get results. While investigating a series of drug-related homicides, Azuma discovers that his friend and colleague, Iwaki, is supplying drugs from within the police force. After Iwaki is murdered and Azuma's sister is kidnapped, he breaks all the rules to dish out his particular form of justice.

Film Movement will re-release Violent Cop this summer through Alamo Drafthouse theaters around the country as well as other venues.

As for Marra, the poster marks the latest in a series of increasingly prominent gigs, which included recently teaming up with Copra creator Michel Fiffe for a retro-styled story in Valiant's Bloodshot Annual. As for whether the Violent Cop poster will be made available to the public, that remains to be seen, but you can find more information at Film Movement's website.