Product: Brother [VHS]
Rating: 3.0
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.