Entry 66: Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

Dir: Mark L. Lester

"One's a warrior.  One's a wise guy.  They're two L.A. cops going after a gang of drug lords.  Feet first."

 

Dolph Lundgren (Red Scorpion, The Punisher) is a white samurai/cop (an archetype that repeats with unlikely regularity in 80s/90s action cinema) raised in Japan, and Brandon "son of Bruce" Lee is a half-Asian, half-white cop raised in the valley ("I don't eat raw fish.") in this violent, comedic, should-have-been-a-hit action movie from the director of Class of 1984 and Commando.  These two unlikely partners trade quips and bust heads as they attempt to take down Yakuza overlord Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Licence to Kill, Mortal Kombat), who killed Lundgren's parents and is currently running drugs through the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles.  Tagawa makes for a great villain; he decapitates an informant during sex after making her smoke crack, lops the hand off a biker who calls him "slope-head" and rapes waitress/informant Tia Carrere (Wayne's World, True Lies) while making her watch a recording of him murdering her friend.  After Lundgren stops Carrere from committing seppuku, they become lovers (an obvious body double is used for her nude scenes).  Our heroes get tortured with electrodes and Lee tells Dolph "I have to tell you, you have the biggest dick I've seen on a man!"  There's a great, bloody fight scene in a bath house with a sumo wrestler and the whole thing ends with a sword fight between Lundgren and Tagawa, who has one of the all-time great death scenes: he's impaled on a parade float and explodes (!).

Showdown in Little Tokyo doesn't offer much in the way of character development, and the plot is certainly threadbare, but Lester keeps the action so relentless that you'll never notice.  Lee and Lundgren have great chemistry and the whole film is a real treat for action fans.  Plus, at 78 minutes, it never comes close to outwearing it's welcome.