If I take myself back three decades in time, this film was probably hot stuff for 1989. Today, not so much. There's not much originality here other than the American/Japanese cop team-up, and a lot of it comes off as not very credible. Like Nick Conklin (Michael Douglas) running amok as the Japanese Prefectural Police attempt to reign him in as he goes off on a personal salvage mission at first, and then a revenge quest following the murder of his partner (Andy Garcia). On the Japanese side, top shelf Oyabun, Sugai Kunio (Tomisaburô Wakayama) is at odds with an underling who used to be an ally, but now former henchman Sato (Yûsaku Matsuda) demands a piece of the action and a territory to call his own. It doesn't work this way for the Mafia, and predictably won't work like this for the Yakuza. You have to admit, Yakuza sounds a whole lot cooler than Mafia, but in mobster land, they rhyme pretty well.
Where it got really dumb at one point was when Nick was hot on the trail of Sato with Assistant Inspector Matsumoto Masahiro (Ken Takakura) backing him up, and when the bad guys are about to make a break for it, Nick yells "Hold it"! Really!!?? Like that was going to do the trick? I kind of let my expectations for the story dwindle from there, and with a few minor high spots yet to come, it all ended quite predictably. I'll give Sato some credit for cutting off his pinky to make amends with the Oyabuns, but it turned out he really didn't have to because he was laying in wait for the big double cross. In hindsight, he could have just whipped out his artillery right then and there instead of wasting a finger. Yet another dumb move, making it America, -1, and Japan, -1.
I probably should mention there was a full bore counterfeiting scam going on as a backdrop to the Yakuza festivities, which sets up a good cop/bad cop scenario that Nick Conklin uses to his advantage when he shows up Superintendent Ohashi (Shigeru Kôyama) with some phony bills he palms. Witnessed by Masahiro, the Japanese inspector bemoans the fact that Nick disgraced himself and his profession by stealing, along with Nick's admission that he took advantage back home when no one was looking. The finale suggests that Masahiro will turn into a dirty cop himself with Nick's going away present, which was kind of a disappointment for this viewer. I'd like to think that maybe Mas would treat the counterfeiting plates as souvenirs.
Where it got really dumb at one point was when Nick was hot on the trail of Sato with Assistant Inspector Matsumoto Masahiro (Ken Takakura) backing him up, and when the bad guys are about to make a break for it, Nick yells "Hold it"! Really!!?? Like that was going to do the trick? I kind of let my expectations for the story dwindle from there, and with a few minor high spots yet to come, it all ended quite predictably. I'll give Sato some credit for cutting off his pinky to make amends with the Oyabuns, but it turned out he really didn't have to because he was laying in wait for the big double cross. In hindsight, he could have just whipped out his artillery right then and there instead of wasting a finger. Yet another dumb move, making it America, -1, and Japan, -1.
I probably should mention there was a full bore counterfeiting scam going on as a backdrop to the Yakuza festivities, which sets up a good cop/bad cop scenario that Nick Conklin uses to his advantage when he shows up Superintendent Ohashi (Shigeru Kôyama) with some phony bills he palms. Witnessed by Masahiro, the Japanese inspector bemoans the fact that Nick disgraced himself and his profession by stealing, along with Nick's admission that he took advantage back home when no one was looking. The finale suggests that Masahiro will turn into a dirty cop himself with Nick's going away present, which was kind of a disappointment for this viewer. I'd like to think that maybe Mas would treat the counterfeiting plates as souvenirs.