* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** Exactly how sympathetic you find Nick might change depending on how you choose to interpret his actions and motivations. [[spoiler:Do you see him primarily as a DirtyCop, or as a mostly good guy who has made mistakes?]]
** Is Sugai legitimately a NobleDemon who [[EvenEvilHasStandards despises the violence]] Sato is bringing to the criminal world, or is he a {{Hypocrite}} that is simply trying to prevent another mob boss from muscling him out? Sato remarks that Sugai [[MoralMyopia didn't protest his methods until Sato left Sugai's gang]], and the fact that he's willing to [[spoiler: kill Sato in such an underhanded way]] implies that he's willing to bend his self-professed code.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: This is one of Music/HansZimmer's first soundtracks and it's a perfect example of Eighties electronic with motifs both suspenseful and action-packed that have re-appeared even on films like ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg5EdPODcew It just cannot be described with better terms]]. There's also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44rR50M0UAk Gregg Allman's "I'll Be Holding On"]], which does an awesome work book-ending the opening and closing credits [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mav_FDsrbc and has an amazing instrumental remix as the epilogue's motif]].
* CompleteMonster: {{Yakuza}} boss [[BigBad Sato Koji]] is [[TheStarscream the upstart rival]] of old-school ''[[TheDon Oyabun]]'' Sugai. Known for the immense trail of bodies he leaves behind him, Sato brutally kills two men in America with intent to slaughter enough to disrupt Sugai's counterfeiting scheme. Arranging his freedom in Japan, Sato later tortures and kills the partner of hero Nick Conklin, intending on massacring all the ''Oyabuns'', Sugai, and their people so [[AmbitionIsEvil he can claim dominance of the underworld]].
* HarsherInHindsight: Pretty much, Nick's decisition to spare Sato's life in their final battle and deliver him to the Japanese authorities, and Sugai's advice to Sato that be patient because he is young and "will have a long life", became this because Yusaku Matsuda was dying of cancer while playing Sato and he passed away only weeks after the film debut.
* HilariousInHindsight: Charlie is accused by Internal Affairs of stealing drug money. Creator/AndyGarcia would later play an Internal Affairs cop in ''Film/InternalAffairs''.
* MagnificentBastard: [[TheDon Sugai Kunio]] is an old-school '' Oyabun'' and a boss who believes in honor and dignity. Running an international counterfeiting scheme, Sugai views his crimes as a way of repaying America for the bombing of Hiroshima, which he witnessed as a child, and the aftermath of American dominance in Japan. With hero Nick Conklin, Sugai forms a scheme to lure the upstart killer Sato Koji into a trap while successfully reclaiming his counterfeiting plates and keeping his reputation clean.
* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Some Western critics accused the film of being racist regarding its portrayal of Japan. Japanese critics and audiences loved the film.
* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Sato's murder of Charlie.]]
* SpiritualLicensee: Creator/{{SNK}}'s Burning Fight was inspired of this movie and of ''Film/ShowdownInLittleTokyo''.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Many viewers found that Sugai was a more interesting and complex character, a NobleDemon with a legitimate FreudianExcuse to hate Americans (he was a Hiroshima boy who saw the Atomic bomb drop in his city), and he should have been the BigBad of the movie instead of Sato, who in comparation almost looks as a [[FlatCharacter generic]] CardCarryingVillain.


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