Product: Brother [VHS]
Rating: 3.0
This DVD contains an edited version.
Since everyone else has already written about how they thought much of the film was formulaic, which it was, or how Kitano transcends the cliches, which he does, I'll just say that, despite some faltering performances by a few of the American actors, the film is very identifiable and enjoyable as a "Kitano" film. What you should know is that the disc contains a "cleaned-up" version of the film in which many scenes containing violent content have been cropped or had gore digitally removed for U.S. release. I don't believe it affects the running time much, but it is different from the Japanese release. Also, if the subtitles (English or otherwise) are enabled, they run on all dialogue throughout the movie. A selection were only the non-English dialogue is subtitled would have been appreciated. I watch many subtitled films, but it felt distracting here.