Made by Ulli Lommell before he went crazy, discovered his video camera and serial killers. Tough LA cop Mike Delano (Steve Rally) seems to be the only guy concerned about the Yakuza in the city. As he tells his boss, "It is just like the 1920s with the Italians on the East Coast. Sure, we weren't around then, but it is just like it. I know it!" Delano teams with Akashi (John Nishio), a cop from Tokyo who arrived in town after the Yakuza killed his sister and her husband. Before you can yell "Bonsai!", the duo are on the streets chopping off fingers and ears because that is "what the Yakuza understands." Typical Lommell stuff here with plenty of good belly laughs from some choice dialog bits. Like Delano screaming, "I was born in California and I'm going to defend it!" My personal favorite bit was this touching exchange between our two unlikely partners:
Delano: I had an uncle who died before I was born. He was in the Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor. He was eating breakfast the morning of the attack. They found him with scrambled eggs and blood in his mouth.
Akashi: I also had an uncle who died before I was born. His family lived in Nagasaki and one America plane dropped a huge bomb on them. They didn't find scrambled eggs in their mouths, but nuclear dust in their lungs. My father was lucky to have been in the US, although he was in a internment camp in California.
Delano: Soooooo, you married?
Rally is a former popular Playgirl model (or some I am told), so it is fitting he walks around wearing muscle shirts or only a vest. Hell, he takes off his shirt to pour a glass of milk. It is also fitting that he has a bit where he goes undercover as a male stripper. Lommell really knew his target audience? The funniest thing about the film is Chris Tashima, who is a Yakuza thug who gets his ear sliced off, won the Best Live Action Short Academy Award in 1997. I'm sure seeing ol' Ulli in action gave him all the schooling he needed. Lommell's future wife Cookie produced.
