Steelhead is a Chinese laborer who comes to Japan hoping for a better life. Unable to find honest work and bullied into the shadows with his fellow Chinese illegal immigrants, he soon finds himself ascending as the boss of a black market mob. After providing a deadly service to a powerful Yakuza crime boss, Steelhead’s rise to mafia power spirals rapidly out of control as he’s given reign over the dangerous and lucrative Shinjuku district.
Try as he might, strut as he does toward climactic showdowns with ruthless adversaries, [Chan's] character remains an incongruous muddle. Same goes for the movie.
– Amy Biancolli,
Houston Chronicle,
23 Apr 2010
fresh:
Shinjuku Incident forgoes flashy action scenes in favor of old-fashioned moralism. Warner Bros. could have made it in the 1930s, and that's a compliment.