BROTHER (2000)

Whether you love him or hate him once you've seen a Takeshi Kitano movie it's hard to ignore him. He is one of the true maverick's of todays cinema. For my money he's one of the coolest guys around since Lee Marvin. Here Takeshi returns to some of the themes of hisearlier classic SONATINE. His acting alter-ego Beat Takeshi plays a Yakuza who is forced to leave Japan and go to Los Angeles. Once there he teams up with his half brother and begins to build a crime crew that consists of both Japanese and Blacks.Joining forces with the local "Little Tokyo" crimelord he goes from success until finally his gang over reach themselves in taking on the mafia. The finale will offer no real surprises if you are familiar with Takeshi's brand of existential/fatalist crime movies. The film is very violent....in addition to Takeshi's trademark shock bursts of violent gunfire the film notches up stabbings, explosions, beheadings and even death by chopstick. The body count is quite awesome. If you have not samples Takeshi's work and you like crime films this is a good place to start. This or SONATINE. If you like historical Japanese films I suggest you check out the director/actor's re-imagining of the ZATOICHI samurai films. I promise you that you won't see the climax of that coming! Loved it. Rating ****