Watch Brother

In 2000 Japanese film maker Takeshi Kitano brought his first American released gangster flick, Brother. This underworld crime thriller begins in Tokyo where yakuza crime officer Yamamoto, played by Takeshi Kitano himself, is watching his mobster lifestyle unravel as the people around him began to fall and loyalty becomes his only protection. A feudal street war wages on, and Yamamoto has just been marked for death by a rival family. After the assassination of his boss, Yamamoto is persuaded by his partner in crime to flee to America and seek refuge with his younger brother in Los Angeles. Leaving behind a deadly past, he sets out for the United States. Upon his arrival to California, Yamamoto has a foreshadowing encounter with a young African American man who has accused him of spilling his bottle of liquor. During the confrontation, Yamamoto subsides the would be thugs hostility by grabbing a piece of the broken bottle and stabbing him in the eye. Leaving the man to bleed out, Yamamoto flees the scene and continues on his journey to locate his brother. During his stay in Los Angeles, Yamamoto's younger brother Ken (Claude Maki) has befriended a group of hoodlums from the mean streets of L.A. Together with his best friend Denny (Omar Epps), they run small time drug outfit and struggle to gain respect from local competitors. Once Yamamoto reconnects with his younger brother, he begins to notice the error in his ways of mob life. Referred to as Aniki by his younger brother, Yamamoto the consummate gangster begins to show these underachieving street punks the ways of the yakuza. Assuming the role of new leader, Yamamoto eventually transforms the crew into businessmen and establishes a brotherly bond of trust with Denny. With Yamamoto's help the gang begins to take over the streets by eliminating their competition one by one, and collecting new enemies along the way to their violent and eminent demise.