The concept is very solid: a disgraced cop faces his toughest and most important case, finding his missing teenage daughter. As he begins to learn that she was no angel, his mission becomes even more heartbreaking.

The World of Kanako starts with that premise … and then goes completely nuts. As manic as it is violent, the Japanese film dives headlong into a drug underworld filled with dirty cops, gang warfare and underage prostitution. The way director Akikazu Fujishima ties all of this together, while also weaving in a few related subplots, is phenomenal. And the work by Koji Yakusho as the father driven to rage and madness (not that he ever had far to go) is sensational.

The tone and the bloodshed may be too much for some, but there’s no question that Fujishima goes for broke here and meets the challenge head-on.