 Later in 1991 , Lundgren appeared in martial arts action film Showdown in Little Tokyo opposite Brandon Lee , Cary @-@ Hiroyuki Tagawa and Tia Carrere . Lundgren plays a police sergeant named Kenner working in Little Tokyo , Los Angeles who is partnered with Johnny Murata ( Lee ) , a Japanese American who are sent to infiltrate the operations of new Japanese drug gang named the Iron Claw manufacturing a lethal methamphetamine while using a local brewery and nightclub as a front for the operation . Along the way , Kenner discovers that Yoshida ( Tagawa ) , the head of the drug gang , is a member of the Yakuza who killed his parents in front of him as a young boy in Japan and the case becomes violent and personal . The film received a mainly negative reception from critics and was criticized for its violence ; Vincent Canby of the New York Times described it as " violent , but spiritless . " Variety wrote " Lundgren can hold his own with other action leads as an actor and could easily be Van Damme @-@ marketable if only he 'd devote as much attention to quality control as he does to pectoral development . " David J. Fox of the Los Angeles Times , however , described the film as a " class act " . 
