Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa

It was just one decibel too many for Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Tagawa, an actor who lives with his wife and child next to the Comeback Inn on West Washington Boulevard in Venice, had complained for more than three years to the police about what he considered excessively loud music coming from the club. As a result of a court order, Saturday night the music stopped at the Comeback Inn. Now the club may be closed. "Everyday, I'm losing a lot of money," said owner Will Raabe Tuesday.

It was just one decibel too many for Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Tagawa, an actor who lives with his wife and child next to the Comeback Inn on West Washington Boulevard in Venice, had complained for more than three years to the police about what he considered excessively loud music coming from the club. As a result of a court order, Saturday night the music stopped at the Comeback Inn. Now the club may be closed. "Everyday, I'm losing a lot of money," said owner Will Raabe Tuesday.

"Nemesis" (citywide) is that rarest of rarities: a hard-action thriller that actually has some ideas, even provocative ones, to balance out the ultra-violence expected of exploitation pictures. A shoot-'em-up set in 2027, it stars well-muscled Olivier Gruner as an L.A. cop whose mission is no less than to save humanity from annihilation by cyborgs intent on replicating the entire human race, starting with the world's leaders. "Humans treat us like things," complains a cyborg exterminator.

The Los Angeles premiere of the film "Picture Bride" will be held May 2 at 7:30 p.m. It will benefit Visual Communications and the Japanese American National Museum and be screened at the Directors Guild of American Theatre, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Shot in the sugar-cane fields of Hawaii, "Picture Bride" stars Youki Kudoh as a young Japanese woman who arrives in Hawaii to face the hardships of plantation life and wed a man (Akira Takayama) who bears little resemblance to his photograph.

"Showdown in Little Tokyo" (citywide) is the smart, fast-moving martial arts action-adventure you would expect from director Mark L. Lester, stylish and witty maestro of exploitation genres. Heroic Dolph Lundgren and humorous Brandon Lee are well-teamed as a pair of L.A. cops zeroing in on the Iron Claw, a Japanese yakuza (gangster) outfit about to flood the area with a lethal methamphetamine while using a local brewery and nightclub as a front for the operation.

"Kickboxer 2" (citywide) is better than "Kickboxer," the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle that spawned it. But you have to realize this is a relative judgment, since that first movie, with Van Damme and company twirl-kicking their way through Thailand, is widely regarded as a cinematic disgrace--albeit a very lucrative disgrace. Perhaps this is appropriate.

"Mortal Kombat," which thrives as an arcade game, an animated video and even a touring stage show, arrives on the big screen with terrific, high-energy panache. A martial arts action-adventure with wondrous special effects and witty production design, it effectively combines supernatural terror, a mythical slay-the-dragon, save-the-princess odyssey and even a spiritual quest for self-knowledge.

It seems an odd question to propose about a gifted actor whose name is above the title in a major studio release, but seeing "The Art of War" makes you want to raise your hand and ask: "Whatever happened to Wesley Snipes?" It's not that Snipes hasn't been busy or successful. His "Blade," the publicity boasts, has grossed more than $150 million worldwide, and before that there have been films like "U.S. Marshals," "Money Train," "Drop Zone," "Demolition Man" and "Passenger 57."

Between 1907 and 1924 more than 19,000 Japanese women immigrated to Hawaii to marry Japanese sugar-cane workers. These couples knew little of each other beyond an exchange of photos. Drawing upon the actual experiences of many such women, some of them still living in their 90s, director Kayo Hatta and her sister and co-writer Mari have created the exquisite "Picture Bride," a gentle and eloquent tale of perseverance that blossoms finally into the most tender of love stories.

The packet that arrived from the Hallmark Channel with the screener for "Hachi: A Dog's Tale" was topped by a faux hand-written note insisting, in an almost threatening manner: "This time you will cry for real. " It also included this odd statement: " Richard Gere has no explanation as to why the critically acclaimed film did not get a U.S. theatrical window. " True, the film has made more than $40 million worldwide, but after watching it, the explanation seems abundantly clear.

At last, a network science-fiction show so perfectly, fantastically stupid it makes "Battlestar Galactica" look like "2001." That's CBS' new "Space Rangers" . . . the ultimate drip. This series (premiering at 8 tonight on Channels 2 and 8) aims to give us "The A-Team" of outer space. Or maybe "CHiPs" with Vulcans and a lot more firepower.