Brother

Japanese action director Takeshi Kitano brings his unique style to America in his first (predominantly) English-language film, shot in the United States and financed by Japanese and British production companies. Yamamoto (Beat Takeshi) is a Japanese gangster who decides it's a good time to get out of Tokyo after a dalliance with a rival branch of the yakuza causes his boss to be killed. Yamamoto flies to Los Angeles and tries to locate his bother Ken (Claude Maki), who is involved in organized crime in California. However, before Yamamoto can track down his sibling, he runs afoul of Denny (Omar Epps), an African-American drug dealer who isn't about to take any back talk from a Japanese tourist. Yamamoto soon discovers, however, that Denny happens to be one of Ken's partners, and soon the adversaries are working together, cautiously developing a mutual respect as Yamamoto becomes one of the new kingpins in the Los Angeles drug cartels. But Denny and Yamamoto may have bitten off more than they can chew when they decide to declare war on the Italian syndicate after aligning themselves with another emigre from the yakuza, Shirase (Masaya Kato). Incidentally, Takeshi Kitano and Beat Takeshi are actually the same person, the latter being the stage name he adopted for use as an actor and stand-up comic.