Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

"Showdown in Little Tokyo" manages to include wall to wall action during its brief running time. If it's a mixture of martial arts and gun play that you require, then you have come to the right place. Brandon Lee's career was just beginning to aspire to good things during the release of this movie in 1991. He should have progressed much further. His martial arts skills are put to good use as his speed and agility serve as a good counterbalance to the strength of Dolph Lundgren. The latter performs some impressive moves for a man of his size. The pace hardly lets up during the proceedings, it's a fast and furious ride!

Another delightfully cheesy action movie from the guy who brought us COMMANDO and CLASS OF 1999. SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO is full of clichés from start to finish, contains an incredibly poor script, bad acting, and tons of gratuitous sex and violence. It's the classic action B-movie, absolutely hilarious in places without meaning to be, and a lot of fun with it because it's just so bad. There is no plot to this film. Lundgren and Lee are two nominal policeman, partnered up in a fight against a Japanese drug lord. The whole film consists of them battling the Japanese in one way or another. There is no police presence in this film, no other characters apart from the bad guys, the good guys, and the love interest. The script is full of dumb, occasionally offensive one-liners which nevertheless add up to make this an entertaining experience.Lester goes out of his way to deliver as much adult entertainment as he possibly can. Thus we get naked hookers being beheaded, tons of naked women around at every possible moment, Tia Carrera's body double being brought out at every opportunity. The violence is just as extreme, with people getting impaled, slashed, stabbed, gutted, having their little finger cut off, plus tons of shooting and the like. The destruction level is high. Buildings explode and burn to the ground, people are thrown through tables and windows. There's a ton of heavy weaponry and plenty of exciting martial arts fight sequences, with all the violent neck-breaking you could ever want.One of the fun things about this film is watching all the mistakes and inconsistencies play out. My favourite scenes are the dummy in the car crusher and the fight at the end, where Lundgren gets shot through the heart and shrugs off the bullet. Acting-wise, Lundgren and Lee put in extremely poor performances. Yet they kick a lot of ass all the way through the film, which is the main thing. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has a ball as the slimy, reptilian villain Yoshida – in fact he did so well in it he spent a career copying this character in many straight-to-video movies throughout the '90s. Tia Carrera is hopeless in her debut. Generally, this film is a lot of fun, despite it being shallow, brainless, clichéd, and unsurprising. Yet once in a while it's nice to sit back and chill out in front of a guy film like this.

This film here was the first Brandon Lee American movie. He had done some limited TV spots and a film in Hong Kong prior to Showdown in Little Tokyo though. For a low-budget film, it's sure to keep both Lee and Lundgren fans enthralled. The fight scenes are well choreographed, and the banter between Lee and Lundgren adds some humor as well. A young Tia Carrere (age 24 at time of filming) is a knockout. The hot tub scene where she climbs in with Dolph is memorable. As with all sword play films, there are some very gruesome scenes but overall not too graphic. In some ways this was your standard white samurai/ninja story and really I usually hate those movies but somehow having Dolph Lundgren as the white samurai it made it OK.This movie is filled with cheesy moments so bad you'll die laughing. I enjoyed this film's badness because it seemed so serious in what it was trying to produce. My favorite part was when Lundgren jumps over the convertible. He must be about eight feet in the air! Michael Jordon couldn't do such a stunt without scraping his feet on the car. "Showdown in Little Tokyo" needs to be seen to be believed. Is it tons of fun? You bet. Is is also very ridiculous? Of course! Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

About eight years ago, I posted a different, rosier review of SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO. I was new to the B-movie martial arts scene and it was the first Dolph Lundgren vehicle I had ever watched, leading to a very favorable analysis of the movie, but after viewing many subsequent offerings of the same subgenre, my impression has become more balanced and critical. SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO is still a fun action outing and definitely among Lundgren's best, but it hasn't aged particularly well and has lost some of its ability to satisfy beyond the appreciation of turophiles.The story: Two renegade cops – played by Lundgren and Brandon Lee – investigating organized crime in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo take on a deadly Yakuza faction.Disregarding any other entertainment value, the main reason for seeing the film is the team-up between Lundgren and Lee. The two have a degree of chemistry and are fun to watch, and it's neat to see both of their distinctive styles of action play out within the same movie. However, even though Lee had just come off the dreadful LASER MISSION and does well enough for himself here, their collaboration is definitely more to the benefit of Dolph, who plays the straight man to Lee's comic relief and is presented as more culturally Asian than the character played by Bruce Lee's son. This (potentially) unintentional display of vanity sets the tone for a level of goofiness throughout the film that fits well with the action standard of yesteryear but won't necessarily appeal to viewers who have since learned that even comic book-style movies can be played seriously. Nothing against the script, but fewer jokes and less idolization of the archetypical action hero would have helped its legacy.The action content, focused on hand-to-hand fighting, is satisfying. This is probably the most martial arts that Lee performs in any movie other than RAPID FIRE, and even Lundgren lives up to his "karate man" image better than usual. The fact that the cast and stunt ensemble are packed with action regulars – from James Lew to Gerald Okamura – makes it a little disappointing that more of the fight scenes aren't showstoppers, but we get at least two pretty memorable bouts in the showdown between Lee and henchman Toshihiro Obata and the swordfight featuring Lundgren and supervillain Cary Tagawa. Lundgren's home invasion is likewise particularly satisfying as a rounded action scene, and the bath house brawl is memorable for several reasons. Retrospectively, it's disappointing that future action heroine Tia Carrere is relegated to damsel here, but she does what she can with the role and is given the welcome opportunity to contribute to the soundtrack.I still recommend this one to action fans, though more as a means of getting in on some nostalgia than as witnessing an objectively great adrenaline vehicle. Even with all its faults, SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO is worth an investment, and fans of either of the leading men will have an incomplete collection without this one. Check it out.