In 1991 Brandon Lee made his American acting debut in Mark L. Lester’s Showdown In Little Tokyo. It’s a buddy cop flick with Lee sharing lead duties with Dolph Lundgren. Dolph plays Chris Kenner, a renegade LA cop who plays by his own rules. Kenner is an American (I know, I know) who was raised in Japan and as a result he’s very familiar with Japanese culture. Lee plays Johnny Murata, Kenner’s new partner. Murata is the complete opposite of Kenner in a lot of ways. He’s of Japanese descent, but an American raised in southern California. He knows nothing of Japanese culture. Natural the two bash heads.

They get assigned to LA’s Little Tokyo and begin to investigate their first case which involves a new gang that’s moved into the area and begun to shake down local businesses. Kenner and Murata manage to apprehend a member of the gang and bring him in for questioning. That’s when Kenner notices a tattoo on the man that belongs to the Iron Claw Yakuza.

Kenner recognizes the tattoo from his childhood. While growing up in Japan, Kenner’s parents were murdered by a member of the yakuza with the same tattoo. Knowing this man can lead Kenner to the man who killed his parents he does all he can to get information out of him. Unfortunately the man refuses to talk and breaks his own neck.

Kenner and Murata take to the streets of Little Tokyo in an effort to seek out and bring down the Iron Claw. With the help of Minako Okeya (Tia Carrere), a lounge singer at the yakuza hangout the Bonsai Club, the two are able to track down Yoshida (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), the leader of the Iron Claw. This leads to an epic showdown in, well, Little Tokyo, between Kenner and Yoshida.

I really, really, really like Showdown In Little Tokyo. I know it has a bit of a reputation for being a little too cheesy, but isn’t that what buddy cop movies are all about? This one just happens to have the added bonus of having some superb martial arts mixed in with all the other over-the-top violence. Dolph was entering his prime at this time and Lee was just coming into his own. They both give incredible performances, at least as far as the action is concerned. And it doesn’t stop with those two. Tagawa and Toshirô Obata, two tremendously skilled martial artists in their right, get in on the fun.

Where the movie falls short is in some of the one-liners and attempts at humor. Those I’ll agree get a little too cheesy at times and come off a bit forced. That could be because the acting is less than stellar in a lot of ways. I don’t mind it at all though because it’s an action movie. I just need action and there’s no doubt that Showdown In Little Tokyo delivers the action.

One really weird moment in the movie is when Murata sees Kenner naked and says, “Kenner, just in case we get killed, I wanted to tell you, you have the biggest dick I’ve ever seen on a man.” Kenner kind of smiles and takes it as a compliment, saying “Thanks. I don’t know what to say.” It’s all very weird and probably something that wouldn’t be seen in a movie these days. It is sort of funny though.

Lundgren and Lee work well as a buddy cop pairing. They have solid chemistry for the most part and some cool fight scenes where they play off one another really well. Plus it’s cool that the guy educated in Japanese culture isn’t the one you’d expect. It really is a shame that Lee died so young and tragically. He definitely had the tools to be a major action star and I would have loved to see him work with Lundgren more.

Little Showdown In Tokyo is now available on Blu-ray from Warner Bros under their Warner Archive Collection. The Blu-ray looks and sounds awesome. And why wouldn’t it? This is Warner releasing one of their own movies. Unfortunately there are no special features other than a trailer. That’s a bummer. Warner edited Lester’s cut down to 79 minutes, chopping out about 11 minutes from the original cut. It would have been really cool for Warner to include the director’s cut (assuming it exists somewhere), but that’s not the case. And we’ll probably never get to see that, but one can hope.

Lack of extras aside, this is a great Blu-ray because it’s of a fantastic movie. If you love ridiculous action you should get this. It’s Dolph and Brandon Lee, man!

Showdown In Little Tokyo is available on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.