Good start, but then it gets ruined

Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is the only film Japanese crime filmmaking legend, Kitano Takeshi, has ever made in America. He has flatly refused to make a film outside the confines of Japan ever since.Takeshi started his career as a TV variety show host and comedian before trading his mic for pistols. Having gone the gangster route, crime film fans around the world have rejoiced ever since. For those of us that grew up in Asia though that transition was something of a shock. Think Regis and Kathy Lee doing Godfather IV. Weird right?This film opens up in Japan, deep within Yakuza held territory. Takeshi plays a character called Aniki, the right hand man of his Yakuza master, whose every whim must be satisfied at all times. Underlings scurry about opening doors, lighting cigarettes, procuring young Women. After foiling an assassination plot, his boss is killed anyway and for his dishonor, Aniki is ordered to flee to America until the heat dissipates.Humiliated, he strides around the mean streets of Los Angeles' underworld something worse than a marked man - he is now a masterless Ronin, without honor. This may not be true, but I like to think that his character abounds in Samurai lore. His behavior is of a man that is already philosophically dead in much the same way that the noble Samurai's code of Bushido extols that a true warrior must always think of himself as already dead, thus there is no fear in the face of one's enemy. Kitano's dead eyed greeting toward an unfamiliar modern world is stunning in it's simplicity and underpins what I just wrote.There is the usual fish out of water language confusion. He over tips the cab driver and gets abused by some racist American slob - "The asshole doesn't even speak English!"He finds his younger "brother" (not his real brother - they were both adopted), but rather a young man he also calls "Aniki" which we soon realize is not his actual name, but a cool word meaning "brother" in Japanese. The two of them call each other that. Nice touch.Anyway Aniki gets angry when he finds out that his younger "brother" has quit school and his job, in order to sell drugs with some Black and Hispanic hoodlums. Aniki quickly asserts his authority by single handedly slaughtering the local drug dealers who have been bullying the young hoodlums he just met, thus impressing them no end into happily accepting his tutelage in the world of strong arm extortion and drugs.So begins Aniki's rise to power, eventually stepping on some very powerful toes - namely the Italian American Mafia. A war ensues, throttling this excellent crime film towards it's cataclysmic and bloody finale. Epic stuff indeed 9/10

First the American acting was awful. People like Elijah Wood; Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis would have made this movie. Even Quentin Tarrintino's acting is better than the American acting in this film.The direction is good but not as good as his Japanese films such as Hana BI or Zatoichi. The cinematography is very straight to video meets Fukasaku style close ups. I love that kind of cinematography as it creates a sense of putting you into shot. You see the film from the perspective of a stand in with plenty of great close ups on key characters. It makes it more violent even if the hits are off camera. I love the uniqueness of the off camera imagination shot as it makes it more interesting. Then again I am partial to on screen violence.The house party at the end is atrocious so is a large majority of the American acting sequences. Kitano is flawless in the film. He depicts a similar method acting to Sonatine. I think this film has massive problems with b level American acting and poor understanding of the dialogue.Kitano has made a brave film here which I respect but it is not a master piece such as his other works. I love Kitano but this film's errors are not down to him. The American acting here is on a par with Too Fast To Furious. Yeah it's pretty bad and these American actors don't do the dead pan and emotions are very overacted. Underplay it for a masterful acting experience.The Japanese acting is on par with Yakuza Graveyard, Audition, The Ring and other Japanese classic low budget films. Kitano does a good job of hiring the lead character from Graveyard Of Honour as he makes an awesome crime boss.Other Japanese characters take leafs out of yakuza movies and act solidly. The gun shoot outs are dramatic and intense which is so frequent in Kitano's work. Kitano's character shows a lot of humour as expected along with the tough guy character to the style of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.This film is worth seeing. Especially for the role of the Yakuza Graveyard lead actor as an exceptional crime boss. Kitano is flawless but the film could oh so close be a master piece. It's one of the best low budget films of this period however more research by the actor selectors means it just misses out. A strong effort from a master film maker but not up to scratch with his classics.Kitano takes on Fukasaku and American cinema and holds out on his own.Track it down on DVD. The UK release contains and awesome documentary about Kitano. It's worth the DVD import price alone.

Fantastic portrayal of the ruthless and die-hard Yakuzas. The great storyline manifests emotional and creative intelligence, and incites continuous interest. There is some humour amongst the intense action and gripping plot. A must see.There are plenty of assassinations, assassination attempts, demonstrations of power/allegiance/ruthlessness/respect. The movie shows the felicity that comes from power and wealth, and the terrors of living in fear of being assassinated and losing your friends and family to bullets and bombs.CAREFUL, THE FOLLOWING IS A SPOILER:A Yakuza's (Aniki) boss is killed, and with the Japanese police interfering in the gang war and Aniki's gang joining up with the enemy gang, "Aniki" (Big Brother) decides to move to the U.S. He finds his younger brother and immediately gets himself into gang activity and starts a gang and war of his own in America.

I know my friends here in IMDb that this is an strange question and also is very illogic because well, Kitano is much older than Quentin in films question but also in age and also Quentin release a Kitano film in his Rolling Thunder Collection: Sonatine (1993) ...but this question is the tag line of the BROTHER DVD here in Mexico City, the DVD says: Brother (El Capo): A film by Takeshi Kitano "The new Tarantino" This is for laugh to all the KItano fans........but for me was really helpful because i never knew about Takeshi KItano (sorry for that) and of course i knew about Quentin and when i saw this film in DVD with this tag line, well i buy it very fast and saw it the same afternoon.Later i start to investigate about who is Kitano, and i found this surprise: Takeshi Kitano is like a influence for Tarantino and is one of the most important films maker of Japan.And well right now i'm trying to buy all the films of Takeshi Kitano but is a little hard here in Mexico City because not many people Knows about Takeshi Kitano.ABOUT THE FILM BROTHER: The reason why i started to investigate about Kitano was that i really enjoy and love this excellent film.This is not the common film about gangsters that we already know........this is a very original and great history about a gangster of Japan who need to move to the US for questions of his work.There in US, this gangster (Takeshi Kitano) show to the little gang of his young brother that what they need to grow up in the matter of business is a leader like him.Very soon this gang start to take the control of LA and finally they need to fight against the most powerful gang in LA: The Italian mafia.The story is,for a lot of people and critics, very common but for me KItano make this story very original because he put elements that never were released in another film about gangsters.This elements are of course, the character that plays himself because he can't talk English but still can control the gang of his brother. Other elements are the excellent scenes like the one were he cut the face of a black guy that latter is in his gang and well the performances (all) are excellent and also the direction is great.BROTHER (2000) is an excellent film and well: Takeshi Kitano is not the new Tarantino...OK???