Romeo Must Die
Po Sing (Jon Kit Lee) is waiting for someone in a club in a predominantly African American neighborhood when a group of angry patrons try to start a fight with him. His father's right-hand man Kai (Russell Wong) and his Asian henchmen pull Po out of the club after a brief fight with the bouncers before the meeting can take place. The next day, Po is found murdered.
Fearing retribution, real estate developer and gang leader Isaak O’Day (Delroy Lindo) arranges for his chief lieutenant Mac (Isaiah Washington) to place security on both of his children. Meanwhile, Po’s brother, Han (Jet Li), learns of the murder in the Hong Kong prison where he is serving time. After starting a fight in the mess hall, Han is dragged to an isolation cell for punishment. He overpowers the guards and escapes, disguised in one of their uniforms.
Eventually, Han makes his way to Oakland and learns that Po may have been a casualty in a gang war that seems to have erupted between Black and Asian gang families over control of properties along the Oakland waterfront. O’Day and Han and Po’s father, Ch’u Sing (Henry O), are engaged in a joint business venture to acquire and sell the properties to Vincent Roth, a businessman who plans to buy a new NFL franchise in Oakland and build a new stadium on the waterfront. He also learns that his brother called O’Day’s daughter Trish’s (Aaliyah) record store the day before he was killed. After a chance encounter with her, he follows her and learns that Po may have actually been calling Trish’s brother, Colin (DB Woodside).
At his brother’s funeral, Han confronts his estranged father, blaming him for failing to keep his promise to protect Po after Han had helped them both flee to America to escape the Chinese authorities, an action which resulted in his own imprisonment and disgraced status as a former police officer. Meanwhile, O’Day reveals to his son that the deal he is working on will get their family out of the crime business for good, but that he must be careful. That night, unseen assailants kill Colin and his girlfriend by throwing them out of his high rise apartment window.
As Han comforts Trish, he learns that Po had put together a list of businesses that were either destroyed or being threatened with destruction for failing to sell their properties, and that Po was trying to contact Colin to warn him about this. The two visit one of the few remaining properties on the list but the Chinese owner and his employees have been killed. Han dispatches the hitters who, to his surprise, are a Chinese hit team - and when he is reluctant to fight one because she is a woman, Trish lets him direct her to fight in his place. When Han confronts his father over this, he tries to deflect suspicion by telling him O'Day may have used outside contractors.
It is revealed that the gang war is a ruse; Mac and Kai are using violence and intimidation to force their fellow owners of waterfront properties to sign over their deeds. Trish and Han visit the last property on the list, the nightclub where Po originally intended to meet Colin. Mac and his goons kill the club’s owner (DMX) and kidnap both Trish and Han, taking them to separate locations. Han escapes by overpowering his guards, led by Maurice (Anthony Anderson). Meanwhile, Ch’u Sing has the other Chinese crime lords killed, ensuring that he will have control over their business interests.
O’Day and Ch’u Sing meet with Roth at the Oakland Men’s club to sell Roth the deeds for the properties they now control. Sing takes a multimillion-dollar payment and leaves, but O’Day refuses his payment, stating that his payment will be in the form of a share of ownership of the new franchise. An enraged Mac reveals to O'Day the fake war scheme to secure the deeds and has Trish brought out at gunpoint to force O’Day to hand over the deeds to the developer. O'Day, realizing that Mac also killed Colin, attacks Mac in a rage, but Mac shoots O'Day. Roth flees to the rooftop and escapes via helicopter but Mac shoots the deeds out of his hand, sending the deeds flying to the winds. Han arrives and confronts Mac about his brother; Mac reveals to Han that it was Ch’u Sing’s lieutenant Kai who killed Po, and is about to fire at Han as well when Trish arrives and kills Mac first.
Han and Trish return to Isaak to find that he is grievously wounded but will live, and that he wants to shake Han's hand, which Han gladly does. He leaves Trish with her father, tracks down Kai at the Sing compound and engages him in an all-out fight. Overcoming burned hands from coals by ripping his shirt and improvising hand wraps, Han ends up killing Kai by landing a kick on his skull with such force that he breaks Kai's spine completely. He confronts his father, knowing now that his father had his own son killed "like running over a dog in the street" for no other reason than that he was interfering with a business deal. He tells his father that he will answer for his crimes, either to the American authorities or to the other Chinese families. As Han walks away, his father picks up his gun and shoots himself in the head, committing suicide. Han finds Trish waiting for him outside and the two walk away from the house together.
comedy, boring, murder, violence, flashback, revenge