The Bayside Shakedown franchise began January 1997 as a hit mini-series on Fuji Television about local precinct cops trying to fight crime under the constraints of a rigid police bureaucracy. In October 1998, when Bayside Shakedown THE MOVIE hit theater screens in October 1988, it drew seven million fans and earned box office revenues of $101 million, becoming the 5th most successful feature length film in Japanese movie history.
Five years later in July 2003, some 12.6 million moviegoers thronged to theaters to see the much anticipated sequel, Bayside Shakedown THE MOVIE 2, which wound up outperforming its predecessor ($157 million) and setting a new standard as the highest grossing Japanese movie ever. With its growing legion of fans clamoring for more, the “Bayside Shakedown” team reassembled once again in 2005 to launch the “Bayside Shakedown Legends,” a series of spin-off feature films centered around popular supporting role characters from the franchise, beginning with “Negotiator,” starring Yusuke Santamaria. Set in Tokyo’s vast subway system, “Negotiator” raised the bar for Japanese “panic thriller” genre in scale and level of realism, grossing nearly $36.3 million at the box office. This summer, the “Bayside Legends” turns its focus from the glib Masayoshi Mashita to his taciturn and introspective boss, Shinji Muroi, Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police Department, played by Toshiro Yanagiba. “The Suspect” begins with Muroi’s shocking arrest, for reasons not yet clear, and builds into an emotional test of one man’s inner strengths and ability to hold firmly to one’s beliefs and convictions even as the world conspires against him.