Brother

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Cast & Crew

Takeshi Kitano
Yamamoto

Claude Maki
Ken

Omar Epps
Denny

Masaya Katô
Shirase

Ren Ôsugi
Harada

Susumu Terajima
Kato

Ryo Ishibashi
Ishihara

James Shigeta
Sugimoto

Tetsuya Watari
Jinseikai Boss

Tatyana Ali
Latifa

Takeshi Kitano
Director

Takeshi Kitano
Writer

Masayuki Mori
Producer

Jeremy Thomas
Producer

Takio Yoshida
Co-Producer

Ann Carli
Co-Producer

Shinji Komiya
Line Producer

Peter Watson
Associate Producer

Joe Hisaishi
Original Music

Katsumi Yanagijima
Cinematographer

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Critic Reviews for Brother

Audience Reviews for Brother

• Apr 12, 2008

  If you don't know Beat Takeshi let me explain; He's a different type of badass. He doesn't have great karate skills or runs around hanging from helicopters and jumping away from explosions in slow motion and what not. Even without a language barrier, he doesn't say much, so he's not really a tough talker. Doesn't even bother trying to look tough. He mostly sits there in sunglasses with an indecipherable look on his face, as if smiling at something...but you're not sure what. When he removes his sunglasses, his eyes are a total blank, so they don't really help at all. He's somewhat a friendly, joking kind of guy, like a friendly old neighbor, but he's also really good at punching you in the kidney with a knife, or hiding guns in places so he can pop them out and shoot a room full of people before they can think what to do. While some people might argue that this film is too commercial and lacks the artistic value of other films I'd later see from the director, what has not changed is Kitano's love in exploring the complexity of human choice under extreme condition. The film has a charm all its' own and would be an ideal place to start if curious about the world of Takeshi Kitano as he points towards a new direction for the yakuza genre. <a href="http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/?action=view¤t=takeshi_kitano.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/takeshi_kitano.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
  El Hombre I Super Reviewer
• Feb 09, 2008

  Takeshi Kitano creates a peculiar, paused, funny, highly violent but somewhat touching clash between the eastern and western underworld.
  Pierluigi P Super Reviewer
• Jan 27, 2008

  As ever, the first order of business for Takeshi Kitano, director, is ensuring that Takeshi Kitano, actor, looks cool at all times. In this particular vanity-project he plays a Yakuza exiled to the United States, who rises through the underworld ranks to become a powerful mob boss -- much like Pacino's Tony Montana in "Scarface" -- before an ill-advised war with the Mafia brings his empire crashing down. Also like "Scarface", the nature of Kitano's business once he's hit the big-time is very superficially sketched, jettisoned in favour of painfully unfunny culture-clash comedy, excruciating sentimentality and a lot of honourable Yakuza self-mutilation. The absence of plot leaves one plenty of time to reflect whether Kitano's anti-heroes would be quite so laconic if he were a better actor. "Brother" is indifferently acted, as unattractively photographed as a TV movie, and it has a ghastly, maudlin jazz soundtrack. Of the half-dozen Kitano movies I've seen, this is the worst.
  Stephen M Super Reviewer
• Oct 01, 2007

  A compendium of ideas that Kitano has previously explored, and with far better results, in Sonatine, Violent Cop and Hana Bi. Not a bad effort per se, it just feels like a long deja vu, and eventually becomes just a shooting gallery for Kitano. Don't get me wrong, watching Kitano killing gangster after gangster can be fun, but it can also get repetitive after a while.
  Tsubaki S Super Reviewer

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