After making his directorial debut in 1989 with the aptly titled Violent Cop, Kitano Takeshi delved further into the crime & yakuza genre the following year with his gritty sophomore feature Boiling Point, which also marked his first screenwriting effort. Dimwitted amateur baseball player Masaki (Yanagi Yurei) crosses a local yakuza boss, & the altercation leads to his team manager Iguchi (Guadalcanal Taka) getting beaten & humiliated. To help Iguchi get revenge, Masaki heads to Okinawa to purchase a gun through Uehara (Kitano Takeshi), a gangster his friend knows. Uehara, however, is also in deep trouble with the yakuza & unleashes a revenge spree of his own.