Ace production values and Asian exoticism can't make a single moment of DOUBLE EDGE original or fresh.
Driven New York City cop Tony Luca (Michael Biehn) tries to bust renegade mobster Rocco (Don Stark). But Luca's one-man undercover sting goes bad, leaving an innocent bystander shot dead and Rocco at large. As punishment Luca is taken off the case and assigned instead to the sword-slaughter of
several prominent yakuza in Little Tokyo. Luca finds an origami paper lotus-flower at the bloody homicide scene and posts the clue on an international police internet. Response comes in the shape of Inspector Kim (Joong-Hoon Park) of Seoul, South Korea. Kim's family had been murdered by the same
coldly-efficient assassin, "Shadow" (Byron Mann), six years ago when Kim got too close to the dreaded Black Lotus Society of Far East criminals. Now Kim arrives in the US to help Luca stop a Black Lotus invasion of New York's underworld, but Luca doesn't want "Charlie Chan" interfering. They
fight; they make up. Meanwhile, successive murders of Mafia and yakuza chieftains threaten to set the Italian and Japanese crime families against each other. Luca and Kim abduct respective capos in both gangs and force them to hear the truth: the Shadow and the treacherous Rocco are both behind
the hits, trying to stir up a multicultural mob war so a third faction, the Black Lotus, can move in and take over. The two heroes confront the two bad guys at a Buddhist monastery in Little Tokyo and kill Rocco and the Shadow in simultaneous showdowns. After a friendly farewell to Luca at the
airport, Inspector Kim is followed on board his plane by another Black Lotus man.
Released directly to home-video in the US, DOUBLE EDGE is a slick, shiny package with nothing inside but the hollow rattle of mismatched buddy-cop cliches that were already due for retirement from the force back when the success of 48 HRS (1982) made them standard police procedure in many ensuing
Hollywood actioners. The mixed Japanese and American filmmaking team seems to think it can get away with serving leftovers, thanks to the heavy ethnic flavoring and visual dynamism clearly inspired by the acrobatics and high melodrama of Hong Kong gangster movies (especially those of John Woo).
But all the artful slow motion and cold, saturated colors don't make any of the ethnic stereotypes more palatable. Italian-Americans are all greasy, knuckle-dragging animals, Asians are politely inscrutable, and driven, maverick cops constantly buck the system and get chewed out by their
superiors. Surprising only in its absence is the usual visit to a strip club or oriental massage parlor (in between gunfights, shakedowns and racial insults, Luca is a good Catholic boy, and he and Kim pray to each others' gods in a mawkish moment). The final scene, possibly implying impending
doom for the likable Kim, ends the narrative on a sour note. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, substance abuse, adult situations.)
