Review #525: 'Showdown in Little Tokyo' (1991)

L.A. cop Chris Kenner (Dolph Lundgren) styles himself as a modern-day samurai. He was raised in Japan, making him an expert in their culture, and as a child he witnessed the murder of his parents by a sword-wielding man with a tattoo on his chest. He is partnered with Johnny Murata (Brandon Lee), an American of Japanese descent who is ignorant of his own roots. The two only seem to have one thing in common - martial arts of course! After an incident in a restaurant, Kenner notices that the criminal shares the same tattoo as the person who murdered his parents, a symbol of the Iron Claw, a yakuza gang. The trail leads him to Yoshida (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), a psychopathic gang leader who is using a local factory to manufacture his drugs.

Of all the muscle men that came out of the 80's and prevailed throughout the 90's - Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Seagal, Van Damme, and even Norris - retrospectively, poor old Dolph seems to have come out the worst, leaving no memorable or even so-bad-they're-good films in his wake. With the exception of his minor role in Rocky IV (1985), this forgettable, but ultra-violent 72-minute bullet-a-thon, seems to be his most significant - even if it is a ludicrous, logic-defying, cheddar-stained, homoerotic journey that quite beggars belief in its inept execution. It did, however, make me smile throughout, as its racial stereotyping and quite abominable acting from Brandon Lee raises it slightly above the usual straight-to-video tripe.

In a decade that perceived itself at the time as very manly and right-wing (a reflection of Reagan-era America no doubt), it is easy to look back on it and see it as being ever so slightly gay. After all, the stars of the era were shaved muscle-men Adonis's in tight vests and soaked in oil, and the massive guns the era so dearly loved were really just an extension of the wielder's cock. Never has action been so homoerotic as in Showdown, with Murata's strange quips at Kenner frequently elevating the right eyebrow. The greatest scene takes place after Lundgren has just boned Minako (Tia Carrere) after lying naked in an outside bath, when Yoshida's men surround the house. Guns a-cocked, Murata turns to Kenner and says "I just wanna say, you got the biggest dick I've ever seen!". His response? "Thanks!" Hmm...

But the bromance aside, the film is relentless. As Kenner seems to never been taught how to for call back-up, it is basically one action scene after next, as the idiotic partners seem to be intent on taking on an army of yakuza's single-handedly, with Yoshida naturally managing to escape every time. It would be harsh to call the action dull (the film manages to squeeze in a decapitation and a close-up underwater stabbing), it's nothing you can't get from any of Seagal or Van Damme's straight-to-video crap. Tagawa does prove to be quite memorable though, as his outlandishly sadistic evil is almost funny, his face like an angry prune spawned from Satan. It's a steaming pile of turd, but I've seen worse (there is a compliment in there somewhere).


Directed by: Mark L. Lester
Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Brandon Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tia Carrere
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie