Cops vs. Thugs
Cops vs. Thugs is a 1975 film from Japan, directed by Kinji Fukasaku, running 100 minutes. reelscum files it under poliziotteschi and yakuza.
- Year
- 1975 · 1970s films
- Country
- Japan
- Runtime
- 100 min
- Director
- Kinji Fukasaku
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- obscure (59/100)
Defined in the glossary: Poliziotteschi, Yakuza
Fukasaku again, arguing the two categories in the title are the same.
Fukasaku argues that the two groups in the title are the same thing. A detective and a gangster have a genuine friendship that survives right up until a crackdown forces them onto opposite sides, and the film refuses to grant the police any moral high ground over the criminals they pursue.
It is one of Fukasaku's sharpest films about the rot connecting authority and crime, with Bunta Sugawara excellent as the compromised cop. The cynicism about institutions is total and earned.
A crime film with a genuine argument, and one of the director's best.
Trailer
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The cycle in depth
- Poliziotteschi: the Italian cop film, 1973 to 1980
A moustache, a Magnum, and total contempt for the courts.
- Meiko Kaji and the art of not blinking
Toei hired her to headline prison quickies. She built the most-copied performance in Japanese genre cinema out of about forty lines of dialogue.
Filed alongside
The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist
Late-cycle Castellari. Everyone is exhausted and it shows productively.
Street Mobster
Bunta Sugawara as pure appetite. The jitsuroku style arriving fully formed.
Free Hand for a Tough Cop
Tomas Milian debuts Er Monnezza, the filthiest man in Italian crime cinema, and steals his own movie.
The Violent Professionals
Martino sends Luc Merenda undercover and off the leash. Prime cop-on-a-rampage stuff.
Violent Naples
Merli takes his no-mercy cop routine to Naples. Fast, brutal, and politically incoherent as ever.
Graveyard of Honor
Fukasaku's nastiest. A gangster too unstable for organised crime.
Rome Armed to the Teeth
Maurizio Merli punches Rome for 100 minutes. Politics: incoherent.
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man
Two cops who are clearly the villains. Ruggero Deodato, before the jungle.
Shoot First, Die Later
Di Leo's dirty-cop picture, and the rot goes all the way home.
The Big Racket
Castellari's best. The car-rolling-down-the-hill shot is famous for a reason.
High Crime
Castellari's breakout in the genre, and Franco Nero furious for ninety minutes.
Almost Human
Tomas Milian as a repellent psychopath. Deeply unpleasant, very good.