The first film:
- Actor-Inspired Element: Due to the film having No Budget, the cast wears their own clothes and mostly drive their own cars. Gerald Okamura provided the weapons that he uses in the film.
- Completely Different Title:
- Canada: The Samurai of LA
- Brazil: An Invincible Cop
- Corpsing: In one scene where Frank is being chewed out by Da Chief for encouraging him to hire Joe, Frank decides to kiss his boss's head and runs off when Capt. Rohmer threatens them, then the scene continues where it seems the editor fell asleep and the actor who plays the Captain starts laughing and then sits back down and closes his eyes as if he's ready to do another take of that same scene, but if taken in the context of the movie, it can show that Rohmer thinks it's Actually Pretty Funny.Kevin: I love those motherfuckers!
- Dyeing for Your Art: During filming, Matt Hannon ate nothing but shredded chicken as he believed that it kept him lean.
- Looping Lines: Amir Shervan shot much of the film "wild" (with no sound) and later dubbed in a lot of dialogue via ADR. However, many of the bit-part actors were not available to speak their lines again so Shervan used his own voice and warped it in post-production to sound different. This is why the Chinese henchman at the beginning sounds like a robot. The voice of the film editor in the puzzling editing booth scene is that of Mark Frazer, not Warren Stevens.
- No Budget: Most of Amir Shervan's movies are made on a limited budget, but this stands out in that regard. When the color temperature changes from shot to shot in the same scene for no good reason other than they ran out of the appropriate film stock and used whatever's left, you know the production was really low on money at the time.
- One-Take Wonder: Almost every shot in the movie was done with just a single take.
- Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: When Matt Hannon had considered shooting to be finished, he cut his long hair very short. While he was looking for more acting work, Amir Shervan called him back to his office for some re-shoots. Shervan was furious that Hannon had cut his hair and immediately went out to look for a wig that was a close match to the long hair Hannon had in the previously filmed footage. The only wig Shervan was able to obtain was a woman's wig that did not resemble the long hair Hannon had. Under the assumption that Shervan was just going to do a couple of long-shots and pick-ups, Hannon agreed to wear it, despite the ridiculousness. To Hannon's dismay, Shervan still had half of the movie to shoot, completely out of chronological order. As a result, his hair alternates between his natural long hair to the obviously fake wig. At times, the wig can even be seen coming off, revealing Hannon's real short hair underneath.
- Throw It In!: Since most scenes were done in one take, there are many instances of this. For example, Fujiyama's first name Fuj came from Matt Hannon fumbling his name. Hannon also revealed in the Red Letter Media interview that he intentionally acted badly in some scenes so that they would be left on the cutting room floor, only to find them in the finished film.
- Troubled Production: The film owes its camp-classic status in large part to the way incompetence and miserliness can give rise to this trope:
- Lead actor Matt Hannon, a former bodyguard to Sylvester Stallone who'd decided to give acting a try, went to co-producer, writer and director Amin Shervan for what he throught would be an interview about the possible role only for Shervan to take one look at him, tell him he was perfect and that shooting would start next week. Shervan, as he did in many of his other films, set all his scenes during the day to avoid spending any money on lighting and used the same locations as his other movies, no matter how poorly suited they were to the purpose.note Some fight scenes were choreographed a mere 15 minutes before being shot, usually with a single take so that Shervan could keep things on the cheap.note
- Frustrated by not getting a second chance to shoot many scenes, Hannon began deliberately screwing up takes in the hope of forcing Shervan to shoot more, only for the director to actually use them.
- After several months of shooting, Hannon assumed that Shervan had finished the film when he told them they were done. However, it turned out that he'd only run out of money, and he called back a few months later and said there was more movie to make. What Hannon thought was to be just a few scenes turned out to be about half the movie.
- Since Hannon thought the film had wrapped, he cut the mullet he'd worn throughout the shoot. To cover up his new short haircut, the annoyed Shervan bought him a woman's wig whose only resemblance to Hannon's original hairstyle was being long. Hannon assumed, again wrongly, that he'd only have to wear it in long shots ... in some of the closeups it's clearly falling off and his real hair is visible underneath. And since the movie was not shot in continuity, Hannon's hair goes back and forth between the wig and his real hair constantly.
- As a further cost-cutting measure, Shervan shot the film without sound, planning to loop all the dialogue afterwards. Again, he was not able to do this until months after wrap, and couldn't get many of the actors who played bit parts to return. So ... aside from Hannon and his costar Mark Frazer, Shervan decided to dub all those parts himself. According to Hannon, Shervan didn't know how to use the ADR machine correctly, resulted in many of those bit-part actors sounding robotic.
- Shervan filmed Hannon and Frazer doing pick-up shots during dubbing in his own office, with the actors standing in the corner ... which is why many of the shots of them talking during the film have this same wall behind them and don't seem to match the location they're otherwise set in.
- The final film not only went straight to video, it went straight to video in Poland, and wouldn't be rediscovered for almost two decades, after the original cut was found in a film vault. It was a triple Creator Killer ... Shervan never directed another film, and died before this one was rediscovered. Frazer never acted again, and Hannon ... well, by the end of the 20th century he'd not only given up acting as well, he'd done a short prison term and changed his name, which led people to think he had died years later as they rediscovered the film, only for him to come out and say he was alive under his new name.
- The sequel had such a disastrous and messy production that it had its own documentary, Enter the Samurai. It was so bad that it made Matt Hannon refuse to ever play the role of Samurai Cop again
unless he has full creative control. And an actual budget.
The sequel:
- Fake Nationality: All but two of the Japanese Yakuza are played by Caucasian actors. Likely intentional on the part of the film's campy tone and aesthetic, and possibly a nod the first film's oddly multi-cultural "ninkyō dantai."
- The Other Darrin: Kayden Kross and Joe Estevez replace Janis Farley and Dale Cummings as Jennifer and Captain Rohmer, respectively.
