Showdown in Little Tokyo is a 1991 American buddy cop action film directed by Mark L. Lester and starring Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee; it was Lee's first American film role. The film was released in the United States on August 23, 1991, to poor reviews and was a financial failure. It gained a cult following among action fans especially for the chemistry between Lundgren and Lee.

Plot

Los Angeles cop Chris Kenner (Dolph Lundgren) is an American who was raised in Japan. He is given a new partner, Johnny Murata (Brandon Lee), an American of partial Japanese descent. Kenner does not appreciate American culture, while Johnny does not like Japanese culture much. One thing they both enjoy are the martial arts, in which they are both experts. The two are assigned to L.A.'s Little Tokyo, where they break up some criminal activity in a Japanese restaurant, and an arrest is made. While Kenner and Johnny are questioning the suspect, Kenner notices that he has tattoos of the Iron Claw yakuza clan. This reminds him of when he was 9 years old and he witnessed his parents being killed by a member of the yakuza. Before Kenner or Murata can interrogate the suspect further, he kills himself in the interrogation room by breaking his own neck.