I enjoyed Kitano's film Brother very much. The protagonist is an exiled Yakuza gangster, in LA after his crime family in Tokyo is absorbed after a gang war. He comes to the States to impose on his younger brother, who is a petty criminal (a drug pusher). Big brother then shapes his little brother's ragtag group of street thugs into a streamlined criminal enterprise.
The violence in Brother is unadulterated; it is not stylized. The bloodshed is stark, primitive and brutal. It depicts certain rites of Japanese gangsterism, such as severing pinky fingers as penance for gangland offenses. It explores the genius and methodical, detached brutality of Kitano's character, and the unwritten laws that govern his conduct: kill or be killed, and the growth of a criminal enterprise is an absolute zero-sum game.
And the Brother is very ambitious.
The violence in Brother is unadulterated; it is not stylized. The bloodshed is stark, primitive and brutal. It depicts certain rites of Japanese gangsterism, such as severing pinky fingers as penance for gangland offenses. It explores the genius and methodical, detached brutality of Kitano's character, and the unwritten laws that govern his conduct: kill or be killed, and the growth of a criminal enterprise is an absolute zero-sum game.
And the Brother is very ambitious.