Brother (2000)

It's hard to describe the hypnotic authority of director and actor Takeshi Kitano. In his first American venture, Brother, Kitano plays a yakuza who's been exiled from Japan after the death of his boss. In Los Angeles, he discovers that his half-brother has become a small-time hood. Kitano quickly takes over, casually setting in motion gang wars and killing sprees. But a basketball game gets as much emphasis as an assassination; Kitano's camera watches a dead body lit up by the flash of gunshots, completely ignoring the shootout that's causing the light. Yet his movies don't seem arty, just efficient--and effective: you may not know whether to laugh or flinch, but you will not stop watching. As an actor, Kitano slouches, twitches, and stares blankly--but you won't stop watching him either. If you like Brother, check out Fireworks and Sonatine; gangsters will never seem the same. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Pretty good film given a lackluster DVD

While in no way Takeshi Kitano's best film, it is definitely an entertaining one. Kitano plays a Yakuza gangster forced to leave Japan for the U.S., where he unleashes just as much carnage as he did in his own homeland.

The acting on the end of the Japanese actors is great on all counts. The English speaking actors don't fare as well and I don't think it could be attributed to inexperience as much as it would the language barrier. Still, it's definitely worth watching as it is pretty violent and hypnotic in an odd way.

The DVD for this film is lacking in so many ways that it's not even funny. The film has a great video transfer that is pretty crisp and clean. Kitano is no slouch with the visuals and he manages to capture the elegance of Japan and Los Angeles with great shot composition and interesting angles.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital is eye opening, to say the least. The dialogue is recorded low but whenever there's violence, it's LOUD. The first gunshot in the film nearly made me leap under my couch.

The surround channels are used effectively and the score by Joe Hisaishi is enhanced greatly by this. That's one thing I have to say about this film: the score is absolutely amazing. Most of Kitano's movies are complimented by Hisaishi's music and this one is just as good as any of the others.

This disc has no extras to speak of and frankly, I'm hoping to see a better disc come along for this film in the near future. An interview, a commentary track.... you will find none of these here. Not to mention that there are trailers for a couple of different films and none of them are for Brother itself.

It's hard to recommend this disc due to the lack of features but at the very least, they did a good job with the sound and picture. August 24, 2006

A Japanese gangster in LA

Its hard to put a finger on exactly what went wrong with "Brother." Takeshi Kitano is an immensely talented film director and actor, but i suppose even he has to miss the mark sometimes.

The story has potential. An exiled yakuza goes to his half-brother in Los Angeles after finding himself on the wrong side of a gang war in Japan. There, he does what he knows best and begins forging a rag-tag collection of petty thugs and drug dealers into a professional gang, finally feeling big enough to challenge the Italian Mafia for control of the area.

However, in going to the US Takeshi left his area of expertise, and it shows. I once read an interview with him, regarding his American debut in "Johnny Mnemonic," where he said that the American director didn't really understand what a yakuza was. Unfortunately, the same thing is true here. Takeshi doesn't really understand the Los Angeles gangs, and the whole thing seems fake. What works in Japan doesn't necessarily work in the US, and Takeshi doesn't explore these differences. He just has everyone instantly fall in line with the Japanese Way. He also has trouble directing the English speaking actors, and their dialog falls flat.

There are some good bits here. Takeshi's character, Yamamoto, is an interesting figure, quite and soft-spoken but every bit a hard-core villain. His first entry into the US, not understanding the English and customs around him, is a fascinating study of cultural isolation. Another favorite scene is when he has a gang members pinkie cut off when he fails, although no one else around him understands why. They don't get the yakuza expression of penance.

This was meant to be Takeshi's transition film for US audiences, and he hoped that the Los Angeles setting would provide a familiar door for viewers. He also mines freely from some of his older flicks, especially "Sonatine" which has a similar theme of a gangster in exile. Plenty of yakuza and "Japanese" stereotypes and pitched in for the Americans as well, things that would never normally appear in a Takeshi flick. Trying to bridge both worlds meant that he ultimately failed to do either. The Japanese world that he knows so well gets mixed into the unfamiliar American gangland, and both suffer.

"Brother" is not a terrible film by any means. He is still Takeshi Kitano, and even his worse flick is still worthwhile. But it just doesn't achieve any of the greatness that we have come to expect.
June 8, 2006

Beat Takeshi: Paragon of cool.

Brother (Takeshi Kitano, 2000)

When I see a film that has both the names Ren Osugi and Ryo Ishibashi in the credits at the video store, I know I'm in for a good time. Brother did not disappoint.

Kitano does what so few foreign directors manage to do: come to Hollywood and make a good movie despite having to work within the strictures of the MPAA. That said, the DVD release is, of course, unrated; it makes me wonder what on earth the MPAA found so objectionable that the film would have required an NC-17 rating had it not been cut. (One note on IMDB mentions that not only was the movie cut, but cut heavily.) Just another confusing moment trying to figure out the MPAA.

Brother may not be Takeshi Kitano's best film, but it's still a lot of fun. Aniki, a yakuza (Takeshi) displaced by the merging of his former family into that of their rival is marked for death, and his best friends are ordered to perform the hit as a test of their loyalty. Instead, they allow him to escape to America, where he goes into hiding with his younger brother, Ken (Beat's Claude Maki), and Ken's band of small-time dope dealers. Well, yakuza-born, yakuza-bred; Aniki sees an opportunity to build an empire from scratch, and he takes it.

Rather than attempting to work out how to take a story conceived in his native land and adapt it to an American treatment, Takeshi comes up with an idea (or, perhaps, managed to put himself in a position where he could make a movie he'd been thinking about already in the best way possible) that blends the two cultures, and turns the movie, at least in part, onto a meditation between the differences between the two.

That, however, is not what you will notice while watching the movie; what you'll notice is the movie itself. That's part of the magic of films like this; things are moving so fast that you don't really have time to look at the deeper aspects until later, but those deeper aspects will be easily found with a few moments of reflection. While you're watching the film, though, you're far more likely to notice the acting (Takeshi himself simply exudes cool, and even House star Omar Epps manages to use a few expressions that have not crossed his face on a screen before), the camerawork, and the violence. Maybe I'm used to Takashi Miike movies, but to me, the violence in Brother seemed almost understated much of the time; while the movie's body count is admittedly high, those who have seen Ichi or the Dead or Alive trilogy will certainly find nothing here nearly as ostentatious.

Fun, fun movie. If you missed it the first time around, now's a good time to catch up. *** ½ March 2, 2006

The coolest man on Earth

Kitano's first (and only) feature film foray into English language territory, BROTHER may be Kitano at his simplest, but most certainly at his coolest - since Hana Bi, anyway.

Kitano plays a disgraced Yakuza foot soldier whose extreme behaviour sees him exiled in the US, where his younger brother lives. Kitano starts his new life exactly where his old life left of - with extreme violence.

This is Kitano at the height of his self-destructive performances. Separated from his "family", adrift in a banal culture, with little understanding of the language, his fast and fiery rise to power is bested only by his rapid decline.

One gripe: when are we going to see more features - particularly commentaries - on Kitano DVDs. Even ZATOICHI is barren of such DVD basics.

August 10, 2005

A great movie - beyond just violence

Beat Takeshi provides another violent movie, whose purpose seems to be that violence begets violence, and ultimately it's a dead end. The basic plot has Takeshi playing a yakuza forced to leave Japan upon the death of his boss. He finds his half brother in LA pushing drugs rather than attending school. Takeshi violently turns the small time crew into a major crime cartel.

Yakuza themes of loyalty to family and honor over life pervade the movie. The omnipresent violence somehow avoids being gratuitous, perhaps because one realizes how more graphic it could have been. Unlike traditional western shoot 'em ups, we are left with the aftermath instead of the fight scenes themselves. At times it is hard to follow the plot and remember who is on whose sides, but perhaps that is the point. April 25, 2005

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