:
Takeshi Kitano,
Claude Maki,
Omar Epps,
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Takeshi Kitano
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: Columbia TriStar
: Action, Foreign, Japan, Crime, Gangsters, Yakuza
: 113 min.
: English, Japanese
: English, Spanish, French
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Internationally acclaimed director and Japanese media phenomenon Takeshi Kitano follows up his well-regarded Kikujiro with this straight-ahead gangster saga with a cross-cultural twist. The film focuses on Yamamoto (Kitano), a yakuza forced out of the country when a gang war all but wipes out his clan. Armed with a fake credit card, a forged passport, and a bag of money, he journeys to the strange and foreign land of Los Angeles to join his half-brother Ken (Claude Maki), who works as a low-rent street tough alongside fast-talking hustler Denny (Omar Epps). With brutal efficiency, the poker-faced Yamamoto starts staking out turf and organizing Ken's mob into one of the most powerful criminal syndicates in the city. As his gang grows in number and power, he is joined by Kato (Kitano regular Susumu Terajima), his former lieutenant from Japan, who entreats Little Tokyo's pathological crime boss Shirase (Masaya Kato) to join the group. Yamamoto seems unstoppable until his gang runs afoul of the Mafia. Soon, all that he built quickly and bloodily starts to unravel as every member in his gang is marked for death. This film was screened at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
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| Great movie... unless it's the US version
by Brujaria
August 4, 2003 - 5:13 PM PDT
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5 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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This is an excellent Beat Takashi film - even if it is rather anglicized for some tastes. If you've never seen a Takashi crime flick, this one will make you a fan.
HOWEVER... The Sony Pictures R-rated release of this film (the only US release) is a travesty. To avoid an NC-17 rating Sony not only edited out some of the violence, but took some digital crayons and actually digitally erased the blood from many of the scenes.
Seek out the import version and give those censoring scum at Sony Pictures the finger. |
| first film..by kitano takeshi on american soil
by psychodrama311
June 15, 2003 - 12:39 AM PDT
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| after reading so much about the "beat" i decided to check out brother. and i'll tell you.. i wasn't disappointed. although very slow in parts.. i still watched. following the story all the way to the climatic ending..which i believe was one of the classics. it definitely lead me to want to see his early work. and also i became a fan. watching this film made me think of many of the classic gangster films.. yet obviously it had it's own style mixed with slight humor. omar epps is his own bad self.. although i did find the under use of omar's posse sad.. as was the under use of tatyana ali. but working within the context of the story..i can see why this happened. great film to begin your "beat" viewing enjoyment. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.54)
135 Votes
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