Brother (2001)

How sad is this?

Absolutely Fantastic

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Brother like many other Takeshi Kitano films it is a gangster related action film the film itself is worth a 7 out of 10 but it's Kitanos witty dry almost British humour in his films that brings him up a notch, in this film the scene where he is betting on whether a man or woman comes round the corner scene, no spoilers u gotta check it out. Just like his other films with action great directing but mainly his cheeky banter and professional acting skills that makes the film. If you likes his 93 film sonatine this film is on par with that , but even better if you prefer less subtitles as its set in us only half is subtitles but to me I love my world cinema so it is all good. This film is definitely a good Friday night watch ..

First the American acting was awful. People like Elijah Wood; Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis would have made this movie. Even Quentin Tarrintino's acting is better than the American acting in this film.The direction is good but not as good as his Japanese films such as Hana BI or Zatoichi. The cinematography is very straight to video meets Fukasaku style close ups. I love that kind of cinematography as it creates a sense of putting you into shot. You see the film from the perspective of a stand in with plenty of great close ups on key characters. It makes it more violent even if the hits are off camera. I love the uniqueness of the off camera imagination shot as it makes it more interesting. Then again I am partial to on screen violence.The house party at the end is atrocious so is a large majority of the American acting sequences. Kitano is flawless in the film. He depicts a similar method acting to Sonatine. I think this film has massive problems with b level American acting and poor understanding of the dialogue.Kitano has made a brave film here which I respect but it is not a master piece such as his other works. I love Kitano but this film's errors are not down to him. The American acting here is on a par with Too Fast To Furious. Yeah it's pretty bad and these American actors don't do the dead pan and emotions are very overacted. Underplay it for a masterful acting experience.The Japanese acting is on par with Yakuza Graveyard, Audition, The Ring and other Japanese classic low budget films. Kitano does a good job of hiring the lead character from Graveyard Of Honour as he makes an awesome crime boss.Other Japanese characters take leafs out of yakuza movies and act solidly. The gun shoot outs are dramatic and intense which is so frequent in Kitano's work. Kitano's character shows a lot of humour as expected along with the tough guy character to the style of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.This film is worth seeing. Especially for the role of the Yakuza Graveyard lead actor as an exceptional crime boss. Kitano is flawless but the film could oh so close be a master piece. It's one of the best low budget films of this period however more research by the actor selectors means it just misses out. A strong effort from a master film maker but not up to scratch with his classics.Kitano takes on Fukasaku and American cinema and holds out on his own.Track it down on DVD. The UK release contains and awesome documentary about Kitano. It's worth the DVD import price alone.

It is really worth noting that this is the first film 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano made outside of Japan, and was in fact a co-production with American studios.I believe it was Mark Kermode who made a really good point about this film, he compared it to a Jackie Chan Hollywood film that was out at the time. Kermode noted that both Jackie Chan and Kitano play 'fish-out-of-water' characters in their respective films, but whilst Chan's character comes to the US from Hong Kong and initially doesn't really fit in but becomes more American by the end of the film, Kitano's character comes to the US from Japan, and becomes increasingly more Japanese as the film goes on. He not only doesn't fit in, but he allows his 'fish-out-of-water' status to reaffirm his identity.That is not to sat that he doesn't make friends, and that is, in fact, the main theme of the story. He finds true friendship and identification with someone who, initially, seems to be his polar opposite, a young black American, a small time hood. This film emphasises the point that whilst culturally people from another country may be very different, there can still be a connection, bond and respect formed between them.Essentially this film can be viewed as a counter-point to Kitano's earlier masterpiece Sonatine, and just as with that film, the plot is basically a man going on a long detour before committing suicide. As with Sonatine, during this detour, the main character and more importantly the audience, learn some valuable lessons about life.

Many people treat this film as a total disaster; as an totally abortive experiment. But in my opinion this movie set a new standard for movies, which are trying to combine the very diverse film styles from Japan and the US; a real success, with small glitches; that i have to agree with ;)But nonetheless i was stunt how well this collaboration worked out. (yeah, i know; many people won't agree with me here) Especially if you compare this film, which was again a showcase for Kitano's brilliant talent, to other attempts of Japanese filmmakers to include American culture in Japanese films. The results are often hilariously bad. They are either very racist or pretty tacky.Now in this film the American actors are shining. They are believable living personalities. And the reason lies within the special Kitano film-making-technique, which totally differs from the well known Hollywood and Japanese "Dorama" construction kit-alike filmaking. And the other very important thing is, that the American part is neither colliding with the Japanese style nor is it being manipulated by the Japanese part. I was also amazed by the special way the American cast acted. It felt sometimes way more natural than in all these cliché Hollywood productions. A simply fascinating symbiosis of those two film-styles. Kitano stated that he doesn't plan to do another film like this one; well, that's OK with me. This makes "Brother" as an experiment and as a movie more unique anyway. ;)Well this is one of many reasons, why this film has to be considered a masterpiece. So there is far more to praise: The beautiful and dramatic music by Joe Hisaishi, the very fitting/stylish costume design, the incessant stunning photography and the very censoriously storyline, which shows that building your own cartel might confront you with some bloodshed ... ;)well, that's it! (should write more reviews in the future .. It's pretty fun! ;) So if you are considering yourself a Kitano-fan: watch it and you will probably be pretty amazed ;) If you are a first-timer to Kitano .. be careful. If you don't like this one you probably won't like all the others ... except the less violent ones like Dolls or "A scene at the sea" for instance; those are also fascinating pieces of art and shouldn't be ignored!