Line #1 Film/ShowdownInLittleTokyo


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/134463_front_4.jpg]]
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3	'''''Showdown in Little Tokyo''''' is a 1991 action film. It features Creator/BrandonLee in his first American film role, starring alongside Creator/DolphLundgren. In this film set in Los Angeles, two police officers (Johnny Murata and Sgt. Chris Kenner, respectively) attempt to take down a {{Yakuza}} drug operation. The tone of the movie follows the traditional buddy cop formula. Kenner's LoveInterest is played by Creator/TiaCarrere, while the BigBad is played by Creator/CaryHiroyukiTagawa.
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5	!! This film provides examples of:
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7	* AndThisIsFor: Kenner delivers it to Yoshida once he kills him:
8	--> "This is for my parents."
9	* AnArmAndALeg: A drug dealer who disagrees with Yoshida's pricing gets his hand cut off. Needless to say, he gets the message.
10	* ArrogantKungFuGuy: Murata is this.
11	* BadassInANiceSuit: Murata makes his first appearance in one and fights in it a few times as well.
12	* BarBrawl: Kenner and Murata get into one after visiting the Banzai Club.
13	* BathhouseBlitz: Kenner and Murata confront the Yakuza while the entire gang is taking time off to visit a private bathhouse, so a brawl with the heavily tattooed gangsters inevitably ensues.
14	* BigBad: Yoshida, the leader of the Iron Claw yakuza clan and the murderer of Kenner's parents.
15	* BiggerIsBetterInBed: According to Murata, Kenner has "the biggest dick I've ever seen," said with a complimentary tone.
16	* BodySushi: We see the yakuza enjoying this "meal" at one point. Murata promises Kenner that they'll do the same after they get revenge for his parents.
17	* BondOneLiner: From Murata, after Yoshida's death.
18	-->"Nice slicing and dicing, partner!"
19	* BottomlessMagazines: Kenner and Murata raid Yoshida's drug factory using M-16s, firing hundreds of rounds and never once stopping to reload.
20	* BuddyCopShow
21	* BuildingSwing: In the opening scene, Kenner interrupts an illegal boxing match by swinging into the ring via a rope.
22	* TheComicallySerious: Kenner is built [[TheBigGuy like a Greek statue]], and just as likely to crack a smile - still, it only serves to make the film funnier.
23	* CarCushion: Kenner jumps from the second floor of Yoshida's house, whilst carrying Minako, only to land safely on the roof of a parked car.
24	* CaughtOnTape: Angel warning Tanaka about Yoshida behind his back.
25	* ContrivedCoincidence: The day after Kenner breaks up an illegal boxing game held by the Yakuza, he just happens to be having breakfast in the exact same coffee shop the Yakuza decide to press for protection money!
26	* CoolHouse: Yoshida's house is quite impressive with two levels, a pool, large garage, water feature and views of the surrounding countryside.
27	* ConveyorBeltOfDoom: Kenner and Murata are trapped in Kenner's car when the bad guys place it in a car crusher. Deciding that this isn't enough, they only crush it halfway and place them on a conveyor belt to be ground up into bits.
28	* CowboyCop: After Kenner reveals to Murata that Yoshida was his parents' killer and it becomes a personal vendetta, Murata agrees to screw protocol and go after the Yakuza guns blazing. From there on they slaughter the bad guys en masse rather than arrest them and end up burning the bad guy alive ''in public''. Lampshaded by Murata when he feels uneasy explaining what they did to the cops and he and Kenner run away and at the end wonders how they're going to explain everything in their report.
29	* CreateYourOwnHero: The current {{Yakuza}} boss killing the hero's parents as an assassin decades earlier is what drove him to become a cop in the first place.
30	* DamselInDistress: After Yoshida recaptures Minako he takes her with him as a hostage. He eventually ties her up covered in gasoline and tries to burn her alive in front of Kenner.
31	* DeathAsComedy: Yoshida, after crushing Tanaka in a car compactor: "Hate to see him die that way. It crushes me."
32	* DecapitationPresentation: After Angel is killed, the Coroner casually unzips the bag containing her severed head (in public!) to show to Kenner.
33	* DefiledForever: The BigBad is strongly implied to have raped the lead singer of his new club. In the next scene, the singer is about to commit {{Seppuku}} after Kenner notes that it's usually only done by women in cases of extreme dishonor.
34	* DiscretionShot: When groping Angel from behind, Yoshida uses a knife to tear off her skirt, but it isn't shown on-screen. Rather, the sound of the skirt being torn is heard.
35	* TheDragon: Sato, Yoshida's second-in-command, the bald mustached Yakuza. Fittingly, he's defeated in a fight with Murata, TheLancer.
36	* DisproportionateRetribution: For warning Tanaka about Yoshida behind his back, he proceeds to drug Angel with a lethal dose of crystal meth, strip off her clothes, fondle her from behind and then decapitate her with a katana blade - whilst [[SnuffFilm recording the entire act in front of his own men]].
37	* DriventoSuicide: Minako attempts this after being raped by Yoshida.
38	* ElectricTorture: After capturing the heroes, Yoshida orders Kenner and Murata to be tortured to death by electrocution. They try to piss him off by initially laughing it off until they increase the voltage to truly unbearable levels.
39	* EvenEvilHasStandards: One of Yoshida's goons is visibly horrified as he watches what his boss [[OffWithHisHead intends to do with Angel]].
40	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Angel tries to bribe Yoshida by offering to "do him" - it doesn't go well.
41	* FanDisservice: Renee Griffin's character Angel being stripped down to her garter belt using a knife would usually count as {{Fanservice}}, but the scene is presented as extremely unsettling rather than titillating as she's being groped by [[FaceOfAThug Yoshida]] before being decapitated by him, after having smoked a lethal dose of crystal meth.
42	* FightScene: Several.
43	* FlashbackCut: The death of Kenner's parents.
44	* GagPenis: They actually halt an action scene just so Murata can tell Kenner "Just in case we get killed, I wanted to tell you, you have the biggest dick I've ever seen on a man." He also jokingly notes that its size scared him.
45	* GiveMeAReason: When Murata and Kenner go to arrest Yoshida at a Japanese bathhouse, Kenner lists his various crimes and tells him to come with them to the station or give him a reason to blow his head off.
46	* HassleFreeHotwire: After rescuing Minako from Yoshida's house, Kenner jumps into his car, starts it immediately, and drives off.
47	* HighSpeedHijack: Kenner and Murata hijack a truck headed for Yoshida's brewery whilst it is moving.
48	* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Yoshida makes some unwanted advances to Minako, the lead singer at his recently 'acquired' club. He kidnaps her and drags her into his bedroom by her hair before he shows her how he killed her friend Angel and warns that the same will happen to her if she disobeys him.
49	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: When Kenner invades Yoshida's house to rescue Minako and is totally outnumbered, none of them can land a single clear shot on him.
50	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Kenner is able to shoot one of Yoshida's men using a Desert Eagle, ''whilst carrying Minako in both hands!''
51	* ImprovisedWeapon: During Murata's fight with TheDragon, they both break off metal bars in the refinery they're fighting in to use as weapons.
52	* InASingleBound: When Kenner chases the Yakuza out onto the street, they attempt to run him over. Rather than get out of the way, he casually jumps over the speeding car and lands perfectly.
53	* InterruptedSuicide: When Kenner and Murata notice that the kidnapped Minako is about to commit suicide in the bad guy's mansion, Kenner bursts into the place shooting up mooks and stops her in time.
54	* KickTheDog: Yoshida's early murder of Angel after she tries to bribe her way out of being killed for warning one of his victims by screwing him in front of his own men. The coroner later notes that they already got her so high on methamphetamines that she would have been dead in 20 minutes anyway. [[OffWithHisHead Decapitating her mid-coitus]] and filming it was redundant and done purely out of cruelty (and possibly as a warning).
55	* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Kenner and Murata are like this after mere hours of meeting each other.
56	* MexicanStandoff: The heroes and the Yakuza end up in a standoff when they're taken to see the boss. The culture-savvy cop notes that they should make an effort to respect them if they are to be let off with a warning, but when he realizes that it's the same man who [[YouKilledMyFather murdered his parents in Japan years before]] he immediately points his gun at the boss's head--understandably provoking every {{mook}} in the room to [[EveryoneIsArmed immediately draw on him]]. The situation eventually defuses when Murata talks him out of pulling the trigger, after which Kenner points out that too many people saw them come in, so they can't just make the two L.A. cops simply disappear.
57	* MightyWhitey: A blond, tall, muscular American cop raised in Japanese culture slaughters an army of Yakuza and is physically and martially superior to anyone, including his comic relief half-Asian partner. His sexual prowess is commented on while the Yakuza boss is implied to be impotent unless he beats women and he romances an Asian woman whom the boss had kidnapped and previously raped.
58	* MirandaRights: Brandon Lee's character uses the ''Miranda'' rights as TrashTalk during a fight, capping it with the PreMortemOneLiner: "You have the right to be dead".
59	* MistakenForRacist: Half-Japanese Johnny Murata vents to Chris Kenner about the LAPD assigning him to Little Tokyo despite the fact he barely knows anything about his mother's culture besides martial arts. He wanted Malibu and thinks it's racist that he got sent here instead. Kenner gently informs his partner that Malibu is an L.A. ''Sheriff's'' Department jurisdiction, meaning LAPD couldn't have posted him there either way.
60	* MrFanservice:
61	** Kenner and Murata are both wearing nothing but their shorts when they are captured and tortured.
62	** Kenner shows off his impressive biceps and pecs by wearing sleeveless shirts most of the time.
63	** When in bed with Minako, Kenner hears the Yakuza approaching and gets out of bed, giving the audience a full view of his figure from behind.
64	* MsFanservice: Plenty of examples throughout the movie.
65	** Tia Carrere removing her robe and entering a hot tub, before having a love scene with Kenner shortly after (although her full nude scenes were done by a body double).
66	** A naked woman having sushi eaten off her torso.
67	** Scantily clad female Sumo Wrestlers at the Banzai Club.
68	** Topless females wearing nothing but a bikini bottom at Yoshida's party.
69	* NeckSnap:
70	** A yakuza thug captured by Kenner and Murata then snaps his ''own'' neck to avoid being interrogated.
71	** Kenner also breaks a mook's neck during Minako's rescue at the boss's mansion.
72	* OddCouple: Kenner is an American raised in Japan who has embraced Japanese culture and customs. Murata is of partial Japanese descent but identifies more closely with American culture.
73	* OhCrap:
74	** Angel's face expression when she discovers that Yoshida has taped her warning Tanaka about him.
75	** Moments later, Angel's face expression again when she realizes that Yoshida intends to "do her".
76	* [[OffWithHisHead Off With Her Head]]: Yoshida does this to Angel in a ruthless KickTheDog moment for warning Tanaka, his previous victim, about him behind his back.
77	* PastVictimShowcase: The bad guy cements one of his KickTheDog moments by [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty forcing himself onto the singer of his new club]] after showing her a videotape of him previously decapitating one of her friends.
78	* PoolScene: The party at Yoshida's house.
79	* RapeDiscretionShot: After Yoshida displays a sexual interest in Minako, he's seen dragging her into his bedroom and stripping down. He shows her a tape depicting how he decapitated her friend Angel previously and warns her that the same will happen to her if she disobeys him. The actual rape isn't depicted, but it's strongly hinted that Minako is DrivenToSuicide afterwards.
80	* RescueRomance: After Kenner saves Minako from captivity and sexual abuse by the villain, she becomes [[GotOverRapeInstantly attracted to him]] and cuddles up to him in his home for safety [[RescueSex before they have sex]].
81	* ReusableLighterToss: Murata throws his lighter into a vat to kill an assailant, which also [[StuffBlowingUp causes explosions all over the factory]].
82	* RuthlessForeignGangsters: The Yakuza are portrayed as this in a meeting they have in their drug refinery with several established American gangs, including Mexicans, African Americans, and bikers. Yoshida cuts off one of the bikers' hands with his katana over a racial insult and cajoles the rest of the gangs to accept his leadership.
83	* SatelliteLoveInterest: Poor Minako's personality isn't very developed, and it's mostly geared around the RescueRomance with Kenner and [[BreakTheCutie the horrible treatment]] she got from Yoshida.
84	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The American gangs that Yoshida intends to sell his meth to are already only reluctant participants in the plot, especially after Yoshida cuts a motorcycle gangster's hand off for insulting him. When Kenner and Murata gate-crash his factory in a stolen delivery truck, one of the black mobsters tells Yoshida to clean up his own mess first, and they all quickly flee the scene.
85	* ShamefulStrip: Yoshida uses a knife to publicly cut off all of Angel's clothing as punishment for warning Tanaka about him behind his back.
86	* {{Seppuku}}: Minako attempts to commit ''jigai'' (cutting her own throat with a knife) after Yoshida rapes her and then leaves her at his house. Kenner, surveilling Yoshida's house from a nearby hilltop, sees her through a window and breaks in to save her life.
87	* SexualKarma: Kenner is a [[{{Hunk}} muscular sexual dynamo]] whose [[BiggerIsBetterInBed penis size is literally complimented]] by his detective partner. Yoshida is a misogynistic [[SerialRapist rapist]] who is implied to [[TheLoinsSleepTonight not be able to get it up]] unless he [[SexIsViolence physically beats women]].
88	* SleevesAreForWimps: Kenner takes off his jacket several times to walk around in a tank top and show off his arms.
89	* ShootTheFuelTank: After Kenner ''flips a car on its side'' with his bare hands, he shoots the fuel tank as he escapes to make it explode.
90	* SnuffFilm: Yoshida captures his decapitation of Angel by katana on camera, then later shows it to Minako before proceeding to rape her.
91	* SoftGlass: When Kenner rescues Minako, he picks her up and casually strolls through a glass door, resulting in glass shards everywhere but absolutely no injuries to himself or Minako.
92	* SwissCheeseSecurity:
93	** Kenner breaks into Yoshida's house effortlessly despite numerous guards being on duty.
94	** Kenner and Murata enter the Bonzai club via the back door with little resistance from Yoshida's men.
95	* TrainingMontage: Prior to Kenner commencing his assault on Yoshida's brewery.
96	* TwoPersonPoolParty: When Kenner is relaxing in the hot tub at his house alone, Minako strips down to join him.
97	* VillainBall:
98	** When Yoshida manages to capture Kenner and Murata the first time, rather than just execute them on the spot he instead has them tortured via electrocution. Needless to say, they manage to escape the trap.
99	** Shortly after, Yoshida captures them again and attempts to execute them in a car crusher, from which they escape again.
100	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Kenner spends the gunfight at his home, the electric torture scene, and the final sword fight with Yoshida continuously shirtless. Many of the Yakuza are also shirtless a lot of the time to show off their gang tattoos.
101	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Angel is murdered within minutes of being introduced to the story.
102	* YouHaveFailedMe: Done by Yoshida more than once, the earliest by trapping someone in a car beneath a running compactor.
103	* YouKilledMyFather: Before Yoshida became a Yakuza boss, he was working as a lowly assassin for the gang when Kenner was growing up in Japan and murdered Kenner's parents in front of him before trying to kill the young boy. This makes the case exceptionally personal for Kenner, and he almost blows the bad guy's head off in front of his whole gang when he recognizes him when they meet again. His partner Murata agrees to help him complete his vendetta after Kenner explains it to him.
104	* {{Yubitsume}}: One of Yoshida's subordinates does this because he fails to prevent the heroes from rescuing [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty the girl his boss had kidnapped and molested]]. Too pissed off, his master [[YouHaveFailedMe just drives his katana through the lackey's chest afterwards]].
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Context Film / ShowdownInLittleTokyo