BROTHER A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
The first American film by writer, director, editor and star Takeshi Kitano, an enormously popular Japanese version of Clint Eastwood, BROTHER could be referred to as THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE GUNNER. Like Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns, the stylistic violence is the movie, and the plot is close to non-existent. The difference is that BROTHER is more violent, much classier and absolutely fascinating. As a director, Kitano has a gift for framing and staying with a scene, and his editing choices are impeccable.
As the story opens, Yamamoto (Kitano, who goes by the acting name of Beat Takeshi) is about to be a man without a country. After a war breaks out between two Japanese Mafia families, Yamamoto ends up with a Mafia death sentence hanging over him. He solves the problem by fleeing the country and going to live with his kid brother, Ken (Claude Maki), in L.A. Ken and his buddies, including Denny (Omar Epps), are a bunch of two-bit drug dealers. This is completely unacceptable to Yamamoto, who almost single-handedly gets his brother and his buddies to the top of the gangster chart. With his pensive stare, his slight facial twitch and his droll, macabre humor, Yamamoto is a walking time bomb that explodes at random intervals. In no time at all, he initiates two major drug wars.
Rather like an opera, the dramatic and melancholy score sweeps us into the frame. Kitano loves to have the camera linger over facial close-ups. Not a fan of dialog, he likes to let the setting tell the tale. But when words are necessary, he prefers to keep them to a minimum. Yamamoto, for example, in his most emotive moment, says calmly, "We'll all die." He does this with his biggest smile of the movie, which is little more than a grin.
BROTHER is a breathtakingly beautiful but graphically violent film that isn't for everyone. But, if you're a Kitano fan, you'll be very satisfied.
BROTHER runs 1:54. The film is in English and in Japanese with English subtitles. It is rated R for pervasive strong violence, language and brief nudity and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
My son Jeffrey, age 12, gave it just one *, saying that it was a bloodbath without a plot.
The film is playing in limited release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
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