Product: Brother [VHS]
Rating: 5.0
Kitano - Master Japanese Director - Not his best movie
Takeshi Kitano is a respected Japanese film director. His films are brutal dramas of life in the Japanese mafia, not action thrillers, but slowly paced and carefully constructed commentary on the meaning of violence, honor, and even love. He uses long stretches of silence, and shots in which very little movement takes place. These serve to give the film a pensive atmosphere, and contrast with bursts of violence coming out of nowhere, with no warning and no stylistic embellishment. Kitano stabs a man with the exact same level of intensity as he turns on a light switch. Gunfights in Kitano's movies are often nothing more than two combatants standing in a room firing bullet after bullet into each other until only the one with the most willpower is left standing. The standard Kitano "hero" is doomed from the start, as are basically all the other characters. The background of mafia violence is not the focus of the film, but is used to intensify its message. Kitano's philosophy is that in order to show the greatest of one thing, you must show it's opposite. In order to show the greatest love, and the greatest peace, one must show the strongest hatred and violence. The experience of watching one of his films is unique. They are quite powerful, unlike anything else being made today.That said, 'Brother' is not as good as most Kitano films. It doesn't seem to have that much original to say. What is does do well is transplant perfectly Kitano's style from Japan to the United States. As a fan I enjoyed the film and am sure other Kitano fans will as well.Newcomers to Kitano's films may expect this to be an action movie. They will be disappointed. This movie needs to be watched and judged it for what it is, a piece of art first and entertainment second.