2000
yakuza film directed by
Takeshi Kitano, who plays Yamamoto Aniki, a
Tokyo yak who gets on another gangster's bad side and has to flee to America. In
Los Angeles, he hides out with his
ghetto foster brother, Ken (
Claude Maki), and makes friends with Ken's
thug friend Denny (
Omar Epps), eventually starting his own
yakuza cell, taking over
Little Tokyo, and fighting the
Mafia and a group of
Latino drug dealers.
Following Kikujiro, Brother is something of a return to Beat Takeshi's traditional badassery. He shoots people, gores people, punches people, kicks people, and manages to stay incredibly cool though all of it, grimacing at his enemies' bloody corpses, brooding over them with his now-trademark eye twitch.
The exchanges between the two schools of gangsterdom are nothing short of brilliant. Takeshi comes across as a man of refinement trying to impart the fancy suits and expensive wines of high-dollar organized crime on a group of street hoodlums. It's the best Asian-black dynamic you'll find in action film today, with the possible exception of Rush Hour...
Oh yeah, and the movie even features a traditional yakuza de-fingering!
If you're into movies with lots of guns and a dash of wit, then Brother is for you. Rated R by the MPAA for pervasive strong violence, language and brief nudity. Yay!