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Brother
 
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Brother

Takeshi Kitano , Claude Maki , Takeshi Kitano    R (Restricted)   DVD
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 34.95
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Product Description

From Amazon.com

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

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Customer Reviews

43 Reviews
5 star:
 (17)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best films I have seen., Jun 9 2004
By 
Chris Campbell (London, United Kingdom.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Brother (DVD)
I am fed up with people talking about how kill bill is such a good film. I watched this film about a week after I saw Kill Bill and I honestly think this is the better film. I watched it 3 times. The way Beat' integrates american and japanese culture makes this film standout. The scene where his luitenent plays basketball with one of his brothers friends stands out. Another scene is when they go to attack the mafia, all you see is flashes of gunfire while this young boy is dead in the car. This is a moving film, asides the infruequent gore, You feel a great sympathy for the characters.
Kill bill has no technique at all especially when she is fighting the crazy 88 or whatever. I have seen more technique in Iron Monkey (an old skool martial arts film)The awkward ending leaves you distraught with no hope, but that is the point of the film and 'Beat' portays it that way.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Insight for Japnophiles, but Hanabi was a better film, May 6 2004
By 
N. Field "sanjayfield" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Brother (DVD)
Brother may seem like a whole lot of meaningless gore, and in fact I don't think it was a particularly well-made or enjoyable movie, but it provides valuable insight into the Japanese perception of their place in the world. I'm not sure this was intended by the director, but it makes a very interesting contrast to, for example, "Rising Sun", another fairly average movie (can't comment on the book, haven't read it), which showed a very American perspective of the Japanese.

Whereas in Rising Sun, we saw the Japanese as sneaky little yellow men hiding their prejudices, corruption and kinky sex behind polite smiles and a facade of high culture, here Kitano portrays them (or at least the Yakuza) as noble, loyal, selfless, brave warriors, willing to sacrifice all to protect their honour. Quite a contrast!

Rising Sun showed Westerners (represented by the US alone, as usual) as passionate but ultimately rational, independent-minded for the better, and, for the most part at least, genuine (in a "what you see is what you get" sense). Kyoudai (incidentally, the title refers not to any blood relationship between the two main characters - there was none!, but to the "brotherhood" of the Yakuza) shows Westerners as emotionally out-of-control, intellectually lacking, hopelessly disorganised and incapable of any subtlety or restraint. From considerable experience in Japan I can assure you that this is an accurate representation of the stereotype held by many Japanese.

Another (I think) accurate representation of the Japanese mindset in this film lies in the ease with which the Japanese muscle-in on the US underworld. With their diligence, their capacity for cooperation and self-sacrifice towards long-term, collective goals, how could they possibly fail against this disorganised rabble of Westerners?! - this is the attitude presented, and mostly validated in this film. It's very interesting, then, that the "brotherhood" are ultimately unsuccessful in their power-bid. Is this a symbolic recognition that the US has remained militarily and economically supreme? At the least, I feel that the way in which Kitano's character dies again reflects an important facet of the Japanese mindset, being the attitude that there is only ever a choice of complete victory or total failure, conquering the whole of Asia or being stripped of all military power, scoring highly in the University entrance exams or dropping out of the academic world completely - there is absolutely no room for compromise or mediocrity, and thus a willingness follows to sacrifice everything in the bid for that absolute, and possibly elusive, victory. Of course, this has alarming implications for Japan's potential return to military and/or economic power.

But if you want, you can forget my interpretations and just see this movie as a whole lot of meaningless gore.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Kitano Takes Over America, Mar 17 2004
By 
Gerald Browning (Grand Rapids, MI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Brother (DVD)
To describe "Brother" as Takeshi Kitano's American directorial debut is like saying Lost in Translation is a Japanese movie. The speaker would be missing the boat totally. In "Brother" we see Japan and America coming to a cataclysmic impact as Yamamoto (Kitano), a Yakuza mobster, is exiled from Japan and forced to live in America with his half-brother. When Kitano finds out that his brother is a small time drug dealer, Kitano takes his brother (as well as his gang) under his wing and turns them into a crime organization to be reckoned with. They take on a mexican cartel and italian mafia alike. However, we see the theme of brotherhood become more of a theme when he and Denny (played by Omar Epps), another small time drug dealer, create a bond that was never attained by his blood brother.

Kitano uses light and shadow to punctuate the drama, but the most awe inspiring element to his cinematic vision is the use of silence and stillness. When Kitano is on the screen, sometimes he stands like a statue. The silence in his films are deafening (for a remarkable example of this, I refer to the film "Violent Cop").

With the use of Japanese and English language, we are thrust among the cultural barrier of the gang. However, they are able to circumvent this and become true brothers.

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