SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (1991) - ***1/2

I gotta commend fellow AwardsDaily member Citizen Darko for recommending this movie, for despite my heralded taste and lambasted tolerance for action cinema, I've been rather hesitant about this particular one for years if only because I've never liked Dolph Lundgren, and I've got a lengthy Netflix backlog of trash action. But now I'm glad that Darko convinced me for SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO is a ridiculous cheesy B-actioneer that executes every single possible genre cliche in the book, yet its immensely fun because its never in self-denial about it's lot in life, unlike many other creatively bankrupt studio releases like THE GLIMMER MAN. Instead, SHOWDOWN is an unashamed cartoonish martial arts/cop shlock that goes outlandishly absurd in all it's glory in under 80 minutes.

I mean you have a movie which politely demands you to accept without hesitation the Swedish Lundgren having been raised within the Bushido lifestyle in Japan, and then later somehow found his way to become a cop in Los Angeles and amazingly while there he feuds with a Yakuza mobster (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), the same one who murdered Lundgren's parents decades ago. Lundgren also has to team up with his new by-the-book Japanese-American partner (Brandon Lee) who knows absolute jack about his ancestoral home, while Lundgren is an expert. SHOWDOWN was also helmed by Mark L. Lester, who directed the over-the-top Reagan Decade exploitation-extravaganzas CLASS OF 1984 and COMMANDO. Also, look at the title. This obviously never played at your local art theatre.

Oh hell, just watch this clip:



Yes, the Dolph jumpkicks over a cadillac racing at him, but the best moment was the head thug just dismissing this gross violation of the Gravity Laws. That's funny. Now I must admit, I don't think I could handle weekly stuffings like SHOWDOWN, and I'm definately not recommending this to a general audience. If you can't handle that sorta thing, then don't bother with SHOWDOWN. No, I'm pimping this for all you action nerds out there who like me at times want a nice if brief change from your viewing-routine of action cinema, which is a goofy fine (and thankfully painless short running) time at home with greasy pizza and cheap beer inbetween James Bond and Jason Bourne and John McClane and Dirty Harry all their endless bastard clones. Plus you get Sumo-wrestling topless women, which my local strip club needs to implement immediately.

Anyway, what did surprise me with SHOWDOWN was how Dolph wasn't the dullard hero that I had expected. I guess I only remembered him from ROCKY IV. Dolph is efficiently engaging and slick enough for what his rogue cop badass shtick needs. I especially enjoyed that scene when confronting some gangsters trying to extort a restaurant, he calmly tosses them around with ease with one hand, while holding his cup of sake in the other.



Also astonishing, Lee is a good smartass with enough toxic touch to be a real jerk, yet enough bravado-charm that you end up liking him in spite of being an asshole. He also delivers this classic cool-but-awkward scene:



WHAT THE HELL?!? I mean I always knew 1980s-action movies had a nasty reputation for homoeroticism, but...wow. I'm stunned, I really am. Bruce Lee's kid comfortably complementing Lundgren's rather sizeable, umm.....endowment. At least the late Mr. Lee Jr. does Dolph a great reason why they should win: "After we're done, we're gonna eat raw fish off naked chicks!" Too bad Tia Carrere had a body double for her nude shots, so no sushi off her. Tsk.

I also dig that unlike most such fare, both heroes know and display some solid martial arts moves, and never get the obligatory ranting-dress down by their precinct superior. Thank God. We also get some more pure cheeky-ludicrous when to prevent witness Tia Carrere from committing seppuku suicide, Dolph suddenly storms the Malibu beach house to save her from endless henchmen, and killing one of them by grabbing thru a door without the hinges coming off. Awesome. Just about as nutty outrageous is when an Yakuza gangster alone in an interrogation room swiftly breaks his own neck so he won't snitch on his boss.

Speaking of him, Tagawa is a crazy sadistic mother here. He seduces a junkie gal, and while video taping this, he decapitates her. Then later while raping her best friend, he plays that footage on the television. God damn dude Where's Viagra when you need it? Tagawa though is classic-great when he demands one of his thugs to ritually chop a finger off, penalty for failing to exterminate Mr. Lundgren. The poor guy does so after much hesitation and pain, and Tagawa sneers: "That's all?" What an asshole.

But this does lead to an action climax that's....explosive to say the least. We definately need more movies with utter-redundant deaths where villains get run-through with a katana blade, shot put by the hero over to a wheel strapped with fireworks which detonate, which cooks the dude extra crispy, and afterwards the heroes crack jokes about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-RsoEGicc&feature=related

So for a movie where Ivan Drago and The Crow chop suey Shang Tsung to save the chick from WAYNE'S WORLD, this probably is about as good as it gets.