StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

alexanderdavies-99382 "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!

ivo-cobra8 Showdown in Little Tokyo is Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee's best action film classic! I am written this review In Memorie of my all time favorite actor Brandon Lee who is no longer with us anymore. Brandon died of a gunshot wound on March 31, 1993 at the filming studio in Wilmington, North Carolina, at the age of 28, after an accidental shooting on set of The Crow. R.I.P. Brandon Lee (1965 - 1993) one of the best martial arts and actors in Hollywood, this actor get's my respect! You will be missed! I love you! I really miss Brandon Lee, I really wish he would make more movies, he was tragically killed in accident like was his father Bruce Lee.You are dead!... Hell sucked! We are back! Like is said in my earlier review (I Come in Peace aka Dark Angel), Showdown in Little Tokyo is my second favorite film of Dolph Lundgren and it is also my second favorite film of Brandon Lee, his first one will always be Rapid Fire (1992) they where both films I grew up watching it when I was a child. Showdown in Little Tokyo is a classic film, it is only one hour and nineteen minutes long, it is a kick ass action and has a lot of fight scenes. However, neither DVD nor Blu-ray disk for this film has been released in my country. I can't get it so I have downloaded from net. Dolph Lundgren did a lot of direct to video action movies that I haven't seen them yet, but I Come in Peace and Showdown in Little Tokyo are his best films he ever worked on them. I love this flick, not that much as I love I Come in Peace but closely.Plot: Detective Chris Kenner was orphaned as a child as his father was in the service and was killed and lived in Japan. Now he is on the trail of ruthless Yakuza leader named Yoshido, who helped establish a small Japanese area in Los Angeles and is now running a drug ring disguised as a brewery. However, Kenner must team up with a Japanese-American detective named Johnny Murata, and he also must protect a witness named Minako who would testify against Yoshido. But what Kenner will soon discover that he will be in a lot more than what he bargained for.Both of the actors did a great job a lot of fighting scenes are in here, lots of explosions and a lot of body counts. Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee literally kick ass! I love this flick. I loved this movie when I first saw it especially when Brandon Lee kicked Sato (Toshishiro Obata) Yakuza's ass while reading him his rights. "You have the right to BE DEAD!" Memorable dialogue for me is when Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's character chops the guys hand off and says, "Now you only have one hand to wipe your ass with." That's a really great line. You have tons of action in here, I Love the beautiful score David Michael Frank in the opening scene. I love the action scene in the opening sequence when Chris Kenner jumps from the roof in the kickboxing ring and he kicks those two kickboxers asses to the ground. A viewer screams $5.000 on a the new guy! and Chris replies "That's a good bet." classic ha ha, Brandon Lee shows a lot of martial arts skills in dance club, he knows how to kick some ass and his martial arts are amazing. It's a damn shame that they don't make em like this anymore. Dolph Lundgren goes in to Yoshida's home and he rescues Minako Okeya (Tia Carrere) for committing suicide, Dolph breaks a door with one hand, he pulls the Yakuza and he breaks his neck, with his bare hands awesome! I also love Brandon Lee's character Johnny Murata. Jake Lo and Johnny Murata are my two favorite characters of Brandon lee. I am giving a 9 out of 10 to this flick, I only have a problem with this film is the sex scene between Dolph and Tia. Some nude pics like Tia is topless, we can see her bops and Angel (Renee Griffin) is topples and again we see her bops after Yoshida cuts her head. I hate this death scene, It really shocks me in a movie. Anyway it is a classic and I love it.Showdown in Little Tokyo is a 1991 American buddy cop-action film directed by Mark L. Lester, and starring Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee. This was Brandon Lee's first American film role. The film was released in the United States on August 23, 1991.9/10 Grade: A+ Studio: Warner Bros. Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Brandon Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tia Carrere, Toshishiro Obata, Philip Tan, Renee Griffin, Simon Rhee Director: Mark L. Lester Producers: Martin E. Caan, Mark L. Lester Screenplay: Stephen Glantz, Caliope Brattlestreet Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 19 Mins. Budget: $8.000.000 Box Office: $2,275,557

eric262003 .Much in the tradition of buddy cop movies like the "Lethal Weapon" series, "Running Scared" and "Rush Hour", "Showdown in Little Tokyo" stars Swedish born superstar Dolph Lundgren who is paired up with relative newcomer at the time Brandon Lee who was on the verge of a promising career that was cut short from tragedy. Situated in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles, the crime fighting caper features Detective Chris Kenner (Lundgren) and his partner Detective Johnny Murata (Lee) butting heads with a dangerous elite roaming the area called the Yakuza who are dealing "ice". This is a refreshing contrast to Lundgren as he usually handles assignments on his own rather than pair up with someone else to take down baddies. Lee is the centerpiece of the comic foil as he is too Americanized and happens to know very little about his roots. Cary Tagawa plays the villain role as Yoshida, the leader of the Yakuza Iron Claw gang and he makes the most of it by adding substance to his character. Yoshida's evil capabilities go as far beyond one would expect like when he beheaded a woman who tried to rat on him towards his rivalry. Once he takes over the Bonsai Club, Yoshida has an interest towards singer Minako Okeyda (Tia Carrere) and sadistically rapes her. To further inflate his evil resume, Kenner knows Yoshida as a familiar face in his past life. Nothing much really, just that he was responsible for KILLING HIS PARENTS, that's all. The story isn't based on anything real, just continual action and the tone at time can be quite graphic and extremely violent. The humour is in very dark tones, but the chemistry in Lee and Lundgren's partnership is quite intriguing and they encounter their toughest challenges when the Yakuza gang captures the heroic duo and are diabolically beaten by electric shock.This was Brandon Lee's film debut as we see Brandon doing everything to fulfill the legacy of his late father, the legendary Bruce Lee and it's clear he's learned a few thing from his father, especially his superb kicking skills. Sadly like his father he too lived a very short life. While filming "The Crow", he was killed on the set Ludgren seems to be full physique and seems to be quite savvy with a sword especially in his final battle with Yoshida. "Showdown in Little Tokyo" is one of Ludgren's better efforts during a better era when major studios backed him up. It was sadly it was a box office flop due to unfair circumstances.

Dumont Lamont Let me start by saying there is a catchy theme song repeated throughout the film, which works because the music is good. This film actually has some big names in it, Dolph Lundgren, Brandon Lee, Mr. Tagawa from Mortal Kombat (Shang Tsun) and Rising Sun, he does a good job as the Yakuza boss in this film and portrays a solid main villain, Tia Carrere, and Toshiro Obata from the Ninja Turtles movies. This film is basically about the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza, and Obata does such a good job as the 2nd in command of the Yakuza boss, he really carries the film. Not to take anything away from Dolph and Brandon of course, because they are so charismatic. The film starts off with illegal gambling for underground fighting, and Dolph literally swings in like Tarzan, and takes out the two fighters in the ring by himself, what an entrance! This film has lots of fight scenes, you pretty much don't want to miss any of them because they are good, we have guns, knives, and various martial arts weapons, and just a whole ton of action at a pretty fast pace with crazy memorable scenes, so this film is a B-movie done right, even though its famous for some filming errors. Out of Brandon Lee's films I'd have to say that The Crow is my favorite, Rapid Fire is a good one if you like martial arts action, and then this one is his 3rd best, meaning this is not a bad film at all if you like martial arts action flicks. Scenes you don't want to miss: Dolph jumps over a classic convertible heading right for him with a flying side kick, they used trick cinematography, and a launch pad but still it looks quite real and the idea is awesome it just puts a smile to my face. Another scene with Dolph when he takes out 5 guys without spilling a drop of tea in a zen like manner which goes with his character. We get to see some powerful looking karate moves from Dolph and one guy attacks him with a butterfly knife, in the same fight scene we are immediately introduced to Brandon Lee and have a very short dream match where Brandon fights Dolph. It's a very nice contrast to see the quick and agile fighting style of Brandon versus the big powerful style that Dolph brings. Another memorable scene is when a Yakuza guy commits ritual suicide by snapping his own neck. In a strange scene, the Yakuza leader, uses a Katana sword to decapitate a crack head while having sex with her in public. There is quite a bit of nudity in this film, topless girls sumo wrestling and eating sushi off of naked girls just to name a few. We also have a Yakuza finger removing scene done by none other than Simon Rhee from Best of the Best. The fight scene at the bath house is another show stealer, the main fight is with Dolph versus a Sumo Wrestler. At about an hour into the film, Brandon has one of the most bizarre lines ever when he comments about the size of Dolph's junk. There is a scene where Dolph and Brandon get tortured in a similar manner to the Lethal Weapon torture scene. Of course the heroes escape, and from there the heroes go into hiding and we get a small training scene with Dolph, and I'm glad they squeezed it in, because how could you not like training scenes in a martial arts flick. The Samurai outfit he wears is pretty silly but definitely something you don't see often! Fight scene between Brandon and Obata does not disappoint, to me it rivals the main fight in Rapid Fire. It's really no surprise considering the impressive martial arts background that Obata has. But then again there are many talented real martial artists in this film. Last but not least the Japanese spoken by some of the people in this film was painful to listen to, I wish they didn't make those poor actors do that. All in all I have to say that Showdown in Little Toyko is a successful execution!