Brother

After a Japanese gang war, Yakuza tough guy Yamamoto (played with steely intensity by Fireworks’ Beat Takeshi) is forced to leave Tokyo and search Los Angeles for his half-brother Ken (surfing champ Claude Maki). The two crime soldiers join forces with local hood Denny (Love and Basketball’s Omar Epps) and battle rival gangs for control of the LA drug trade. The coalition’s success leads to a confrontation with the Italian Mafia that tests Yamamoto’s code of brotherhood, honor and discipline. The film is overly violent and sometimes confusing, but its offbeat story of hardened killers awaiting their own inevitable demise is darkly intriguing. Written, edited and directed by Takeshi Kitano (Beat’s name behind the camera).