The general story line-- a tale of two American cops, Kenner and Murata, partnered up to crack down criminal activities happening in Little Tokyo. They find a suspect to interrogate, who happens to bare the tattoo of the Yakuza associated with the murder of Kenner's family. Before Kenner can question him further, the suspect breaks his own neck to avoid telling the truth. In comes Yoshida on the other side of the town, the antagonist of the film, who is celebrating his slaying of the Bonsai nightclub owner. He is characterized to be a ruthless murderer, a drug manufacturer, and a brutal rapist. Yoshida also murders one of the girls from his party, not before fondling her first though. In addition, rapes Minako, a lounge singer from the nightclub. With so much evidence piling up against Yoshida within these criminal activities, Kenner and Murata eventually find that their leads are to him. Kenner remembers Yoshida as the man who killed his parents, and is then forced to take on each other in "a battle of death."Kenner eventually stabs Yoshida with a sword and punctures him against a wooden spinning board with fireworks spokes on the edges. 

It is evident that the villains in this movie are mainly the Asians in it, with the exception of Minako, the lounge singer who plays the submissive and subservient Asian woman stereotype. Even in the trailer, it narrates "For over 400 years, they've developed their own mysterious traditions. For over 400 years, they've had a strict code of honor... they've terrorized the streets of Japan." Although in the story's context, the term they refers to the Yakuza's in Japan, but the audience understands that the underlying meaning within the term they, is actually a reference to Asians, or as most people preferred "Orientals." Due to the little that they know about Asian culture, the writers of this movie attempts to throw all sorts of negative stereotypes into this one movie, making the Asians the antagonists terrorizing the city of Los Angeles, a city in America. This movie echoes remnants of Asian immigration struggles in American history. To preserve the "good ol' American culture" they have two Caucasian male characters destroying all the villains in Showdown in Little Tokyo.

For a quick summary of the movie in video clips, see below.

Written by Natalie Yip

Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) in 4 minutes at