ブラザー (aka Brother) (2001)

After his clan is defeated in a criminal war with a rival family, a yakuza enforcer (Takeshi Kitano) flees to America. There, he reunites with his younger brother (Claude Maki), who sells drugs to make money. He then creates a gang of his younger brother and his African American friends to challenge a Mexican gang's turf. Written and directed by Takeshi Kitano (ZATOICHI). This was Kitano's first and only film made outside of Japan to date. It's in both Japanese and English. While Kitano's film making is skilled, taking a violent Yakuza style narrative out of Japan and placing it smack in the middle of Los Angeles just doesn't work. Having all the central gangsters played by Japanese, African Americans and Mexicans also leaves an uncomfortable taste. Kitano brings in the Mafia (Italians) near the end but they aren't given nearly as much time as the other ethnicities. The violence is overdone but without much style and becomes plodding after awhile. The whole enterprise feels "fish out of water". On the plus side, there's a terrific score by Joe Hisaishi which is very different from his scores for Hayao Miyazaki. With Omar Epps, Masaya Kato, James Shigeta and Tetsuya Watari.