An Unexpected Good Time
This poster art has been stuck in my head since the time of the VHS. Back in the olden days of Blockbuster existing and having no access to a local mom and pop video store, this was always ready to be rented in the Action section. I would always pass by whenever I went and though it looked enticing, I never did go about in renting it. Why? Because I was like 6 or 7 and what the fuck did I know about anything except that I needed to rent The Brave Little Toaster 1 more fucking time.
there goes my hero
Years passed and when money entered my pocket, I ventured into the vast Sam Goody's that was built as a sort of Mecca for physical media in Downtown San Diego. What a glorious place it was. Two separate floors containing every DVD,CD, and VHS tape anyone would ever need. It no longer exists today this wonderful place but the memories still remain in my heart.
For it was the place where I managed to score the Criterion release of Robocop for cheap. It was the place where I managed to score a copy of Audition for cheap. It was also a place where I managed to score a few of the Shogun Assassin movies for cheap. It was a good place to buy used movies and one movie I would always see was Showdown in Little Tokyo.
My first reaction on seeing it on the shelves again around this time was 'I remember seeing this back in the day at Blockbuster.' The next thought would be my cinema watching ego freaking out with this though; 'This fucking sounds like a rip off of Big Trouble in Little China. Get the fuck outta here with this.' and I would place it back on the shelf and continue on with my hunt for something pretentious.
Some more years passed and now my cinema watching ego has calmed the fuck down to become a movie watching ego and now, for the most part, I can accept watching a movie on a whim. Seeing that this film has now been released on Blu-ray, I figured 'What the fuck do I gotta lose?' and bought it blind.
Now after seeing it, I deride my past self on being a dumbass and not getting around to watching it sooner.
The Buddy Cop Movie
The genre had existed and was more or less set in stone as to how to make a good one of these by the time this film came out in 1991.
In the beginning, at least from what I can gather, one of the earliest examples of the genre was the Akira Kurosawa film Stray Dog which dealt with a young detective losing his gun and teaming up with an older detective to go off and find it. The true rise of the genre stateside was in the early 80's with the release of 48 Hrs which set off Eddie Murphy into the stratosphere of stardom and by the late 80's, the popularity of the genre hit an apex with the release of Lethal Weapon. A series that went on for another 3 movies with each outing being just a little less good. Though still entertaining as a whole. Nonetheless, the genre had been around for some time and some entries stand out to be stronger than others and the ones that don't stand at all are forgotten to the mistress of time.
This film is somewhere in the middle but before I start digging into it, here's the basic plot.
Let Me Get This Outta The Way
The films stars Dolph Lundgren as Chris Kenner. An LAPD cop whose jurisdiction is Little Tokyo and the problem he has is the Yakuza coming in from overseas to take over the drug market with their own high potent Meth. Brandon Lee plays Johnny Murata, his new partner on the case, and together they fight/shoot their way out of situations to stop the main Yakuza boss Funekei Yoshida played by a fantastic Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa from bringing a plague of meth to Los Angeles/America.
The Movie
I thought it was good. Dolph Lundgren did some major work on losing his accent and comes off as the most American sounding as I have ever heard the guy. Gives a solid performance as a Cop wanting to stop the drugs and as a Man wanting vengeance for the death of his parents. Brandon Lee shows up in the film and seems to be destined to play comedy relief all throughout but as the film keeps moving, you see him start to steal more and more scenes.
The comradery between the two felt genuine and it was easy to seem them becoming buddies on a mission to stop the Yakuza. The jokes between the two were pretty good for the most part, even that big dick line that totally caught me off guard and puzzled in the trailer, actually works well in the context of the movie.
the line in question
The real star of the film though is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. That dude can play a villain and what every great hero needs is an even better villain. How they introduce this guy to be one low down dirty motherfucker is the greatest.
real mean motherfucker
He basically has this woman see some incriminating evidence against her and its enough to where her life is on the line and so she offers to fuck the guy in front of everyone. He accepts the offer but first has her smoke some meth before they get down to business. She gets ready and Funekei, the character he plays, cuts her shirt off with a knife then right when she finishes smoking the meth, HE CUTS OFF HER HEAD WITH A SAMURAI SWORD!
Just a real son of a bitch and throughout the rest of the movie he gets even MEANER.
Getting Meaner List
1. Killing the owner of a night club/brewery to own it by having him crushed in a car crusher
2. Cutting off a woman's head after having her smoke meth
3. Cutting off a biker gang boss to make sure every gang around knows they need to buy their meth at their set price.
4. Kidnapping a woman at his nightclub and basically making her his sex slave
5. Stabbing a henchmen that fucked up on the job right in the throat in front of all the Yakuza members to see.
The list goes on and on as the movie keeps going and it's great. Not what he does is great but the fact that this movie manages to have a villain, just a real pure evil kind of dude, and commit to it. Like I mentioned though, all praise to Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa since a villain like that can turn into a cartoon in a split second if they lean an inch towards meta or self-awareness but just BEING this guy, he sells it so good.
What Makes It Worthwhile
The final reason why I enjoyed the film so much is the fact that the two main characters receive their own personal endings.
Brandon Lee gets into fight with the #2 guy in the Yakuza, Toshiro Obata who happens to be 2nd in command of the Foot Clan from TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze, and it's actually satisfying. They go head to head with Brandon Lee showing off the heat with those flying kicks that ultimately end up with him reading his Miranda rights as he kicks him into an open vat and then finishing the Miranda rights with:
"You have the right to remain dead."
As he tosses a lighter to the man and BLOWS HIM UP in a vat of alcohol. Or yeast? I don't know what kind of liquid the guy fell in but when he blew up, it set off a chain reaction of the rest of the brewery blowing up. Good stuff but it gets better.
You think that the final showdown between Lundgren and Tagawa will be a fist fight but it turns into a SAMURAI SHOWDOWN in the middle of a parade. True Cinema right here. They both get their hits in as they slice away at one another but ultimately Lundgren prevails. He stabs him in the stomach with the sword then LAUNCHES HIM onto a conveniently placed fireworks wheel display. The fireworks go off and he starts spinning and spinning until the fireworks go haywire and then he is ENGULFED IN FLAMES AND BURNS TO DEATH.
What an ending.
The Grumbling
I thought it was good but I have to admit that it's not a perfect movie. It has a near perfect run time of 78 minutes which is amazing because of how much it manages to succeed in such a limited amount of time but the single small bump in the road does hinder it from me being able to commit to it being a great movie.
The romance subplot.
In regard to the sex slave that Tagawa has, the next day she ends up trying to commit suicide and Dolph is there to save her before she commits it. How she was going to do it by herself doesn't make much sense since you need a buddy to chop off your head after you eviscerate yourself if you are truly going to commit seppuku but I digress. He saves her and there is a romance that starts to spur but it doesn't go anywhere important and actually diverts from the true love story of Dolph and Brandon. Not to say that they were going to start going at it but that the brotherhood that was forming between the two was one that needed just a little more time to make the movie rise above what it is now.
For instance, there's a conversation between the two in the first half when they are getting to know each other. The conversation deals with identity since Kenner is a white American who grew up in Japan and is all about Japanese culture while Johnny grew up far and away from his Japanese identity except for his knowledge of Bushido. It's a shame that this ultimately doesn't go anywhere but its a nice flavor to these two guys talking about who they are in the world outside of the Yakuza drug stuff going. Just talking about where they come from to build a sense of trust between the two.
To have just another moment to be on the other side of the same coin would have been so great. A scene between the two having a beer after a long day of shooting the shit out people, fighting in a Yakuza only member sauna, or even back at the cool house that Dolph had built with his bare hands he saved that woman.
Just a strong moment between the two to cement their relationship from just being cops to actual brothers. That's my only real problem of the movie. That it doesn't focus truly developing the real relationship that matters.
Final Blood
From what I can gather in researching this, there is apparently 10 minutes missing from the current version that is available to watch. It's possible that the movie would be even better if those 10 minutes were still in and that this film would be able to become a highlight of the buddy cop genre unlike say another film from 1991 that manages to retain that title though is on the opposite end of the spectrum by being a film with so much potential and failing to achieve it.
you know which 1 i'm talking about
As of now though, what the movie achieves to be is a good time and what more can you ask for when it comes to a buddy cop movie?