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#405 - Showdown in Little Tokyo
Mark L. Lester, 1991
A pair of Los Angeles detectives are paired together in order to wipe out a drug operation being carried out by the Yakuza.
As far as campy action movies go, Showdown in Little Tokyo actually does alright at doing what it sets out to do. It actually establishes a decent buddy-cop dynamic (which is pretty difficult, as several other films reviewed in this thread sadly demonstrate) with its very mismatched pair of cops who nonetheless develop a decent dynamic. Dolph Lundgren stars as a white Tokyo-raised detective who is well-versed in Japanese culture and has a vendetta against the Yakuza after one clan member murdered his parents in front of him while he was a boy. Brandon Lee makes for his counterpart, a biracial American who is nowhere near in touch with his Japanese heritage, making him an amusing counterpart to Lundgren's for reasons beyond him being a wise-cracking foil to Lundgren's serious-minded warrior. Thrown into the mix is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the main villain who relies on his raw charisma to make an otherwise one-note character work, while Tia Carrere pops up as a nightclub singer who gets drawn into Little Tokyo's seedy underbelly.
A good reason why Showdown in Little Tokyo works so well (within reason, that is) is that it knows its limitations and plays to them. The film is 79 minutes long - to give that some perspective, Bad Boys II is 147 minutes long (that's nearly twice as long) despite having the exact same plot about two mismatched detectives taking on a drug operation. It's almost refreshing just how lean the plot is, even when it results in the occasional spot of underdevelopment such as the romantic sub-plot that occurs between Lundgren and Carrere. In any case, Lundgren and Lee have good chemistry together and they are both competent action heroes that provide plenty of good fight scenes. Being directed by the same person responsible for Commando means that, despite its early-'90s release date, it is still heavily rooted in the '80s with its guitar-and-synth score and straightforward action plotting. There's lots of martial arts and swordfighting plus the occasional gunfight and it's all captured with sufficient competence. I'm giving this a relatively favourable rating because it got more than a few chuckles out of me and doesn't waste time getting bogged down in unnecessary sentiment or poor attempts at humour (like a certain other film...) I don't think I can honestly give it too high a rating - I wasn't sure whether I wanted to give it two-and-a-half popcorn boxes or three, but I think I'll go with reasonable doubt over the benefit of the doubt and give it the lower rating. Still worth a shot if you're into silly fun movies that manage to be funny in both deliberate and unintentional ways.
Mark L. Lester, 1991
A pair of Los Angeles detectives are paired together in order to wipe out a drug operation being carried out by the Yakuza.
As far as campy action movies go, Showdown in Little Tokyo actually does alright at doing what it sets out to do. It actually establishes a decent buddy-cop dynamic (which is pretty difficult, as several other films reviewed in this thread sadly demonstrate) with its very mismatched pair of cops who nonetheless develop a decent dynamic. Dolph Lundgren stars as a white Tokyo-raised detective who is well-versed in Japanese culture and has a vendetta against the Yakuza after one clan member murdered his parents in front of him while he was a boy. Brandon Lee makes for his counterpart, a biracial American who is nowhere near in touch with his Japanese heritage, making him an amusing counterpart to Lundgren's for reasons beyond him being a wise-cracking foil to Lundgren's serious-minded warrior. Thrown into the mix is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the main villain who relies on his raw charisma to make an otherwise one-note character work, while Tia Carrere pops up as a nightclub singer who gets drawn into Little Tokyo's seedy underbelly.
A good reason why Showdown in Little Tokyo works so well (within reason, that is) is that it knows its limitations and plays to them. The film is 79 minutes long - to give that some perspective, Bad Boys II is 147 minutes long (that's nearly twice as long) despite having the exact same plot about two mismatched detectives taking on a drug operation. It's almost refreshing just how lean the plot is, even when it results in the occasional spot of underdevelopment such as the romantic sub-plot that occurs between Lundgren and Carrere. In any case, Lundgren and Lee have good chemistry together and they are both competent action heroes that provide plenty of good fight scenes. Being directed by the same person responsible for Commando means that, despite its early-'90s release date, it is still heavily rooted in the '80s with its guitar-and-synth score and straightforward action plotting. There's lots of martial arts and swordfighting plus the occasional gunfight and it's all captured with sufficient competence. I'm giving this a relatively favourable rating because it got more than a few chuckles out of me and doesn't waste time getting bogged down in unnecessary sentiment or poor attempts at humour (like a certain other film...) I don't think I can honestly give it too high a rating - I wasn't sure whether I wanted to give it two-and-a-half popcorn boxes or three, but I think I'll go with reasonable doubt over the benefit of the doubt and give it the lower rating. Still worth a shot if you're into silly fun movies that manage to be funny in both deliberate and unintentional ways.