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Brother
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Takeshi Kitano
Directed by: Takeshi Kitano
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 20, 2001
DVD: January 2, 2002
Running Time: 113 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / USA / France / Japan
Summary
RATING: R for pervasive strong violence, language and brief nudity
Starring Takeshi Kitano, Omar Epps, Kuroudo Maki, and Masaya Kato
The story of a Yakuza warrior who introduces the code of honor and discipline into the L.A. criminal world. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Dolls Kikujiro The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Village Voice J. Hoberman
If nothing else, Brother confirms Kitano's stature as the most original purveyor of on-screen mayhem since Sam Peckinpah.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's a romantic fantasy of the gangster brotherhood and their doomed lives, executed with Takeshi's unique mix of stoic ruthlessness and giddy energy.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Kitano's most enjoyable, flat-out fun movie, provided you can stomach the violence.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
A wizard at manipulating time, Kitano introduces staccato elements that interrupt the meditative pace even as they help set it.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Mr. Kitano directed, edited and wrote Brother -- and his style of close-to-the-vest brutality travels extremely well.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Brother is a solid return to gangster form for Kitano, who knows how to transcend the most overly familiar genre clichés without betraying the rules of engagement.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
When it works, which is often, Kitano's movie is an anthropology of the distinctions between Japanese yakuza and American gangsters.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Delivers some powerful emotional wallops alongside the chopsticks-up-the-nose violence, and manages the remarkable feat of making venerable American genre conventions seem eerily alien.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Sags, lollygags, and blusters too much to sustain the what-the-hell momentum that Kitano achieves in his best movies.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Enough odd twists to be mildly interesting.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A typical Kitano film in many ways, but not one of his best ones. Too many of the killing scenes have a casual, perfunctory tone.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Loren King
Disappointingly hollow.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Cool killers - Kitano's stock in trade - do not necessarily make for cool movies.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein
While Brother may be the perfect introduction for Kitano newcomers, longtime fans may find it superfluous and even a step down from the likes of Hana-Bi (1997) and Sonatine (1993).
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
Beat Takeshi fans wouldn't think of missing this one. Moviegoers who hate violence wouldn't be caught dead at it.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's rougher stuff than most would expect, though not unrewarding in its own horrific way.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour
While Yamamoto's bullets never miss, Kitano's attempt at tragic grandeur of "Godfather"-esque proportions misses to an almost embarrassing degree.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Takeshi's elliptical directorial style here is overwhelmed by the script's crudeness and lack of narrative power.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
The mix feels flat and the story remains a fairly banal account of underworld exploits whose emotional gears never fully engage.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Critics tend to fawn over the Japanese director-star Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi), but am I the only one who finds his films impossible to make heads or tails of?
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Watching this movie, you also have to ask yourself: Just how many acts of self-inflicted finger amputations do I really want to see?
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
James M gave it a7:
Certainly not one of Kitano's best, but a great film nonetheless.
Yoon Min C. gave it a 6:
Takeshi falters as did Antonioni with Zabriskie Point, his American movie. There have been many instances of non-American directors learning to make successful American films but few have translated their personal visions on American soil with much integrity. One of the few exceptions was Leone with Once Upon a Time in the West but he was working with myth. Takeshi's story, which is set in contemporary L.A., has to be judged substantially on its understanding of the underworld of American crime; Takeshi, after all, is not just a hack churning out formulaic drivel but a noted auteur with ruthless insight into Japanese culture in his nihilistic crime-centered films. Granted, his Japanese films haven't been exactly realistic but the spirit felt true, and the inhibited, hierarchical world of japanese behavior well-suited Takeshi's minimalist formalism. In Brother Takeshi frames the more subtle and expressive American style of relationships within the Japanese mold and while the results are fascinating and peculiar, it's too far from reality to rise above absurdist comedy. But, Japanese ways are also misrepresented here. Obviously self-conscious of making a Yakuza film in America partly for American audience, Takeshi's presentation of Yakuza codes has the look of self-imposed exoticism. It's Takeshi looking at his Japan thru what he perceives might be thru American eyes. What was ruthlessly and efficiently portrayed in Takeshi's Japanese films might strike the viewer as somewhat inflated and turgid in Brother. Still, this is Takesh's most ambitious movie to date, an undertaking that took some degree of courage, vision, and daring. Sometimes one's not sure how much of this was meant in earnest or as parody. For example, smalltime 'gangsta' style hoodlums in LA becoming drugkingpins in suits overnight evoked the much discussed notion that lazy and stupid Americans should emulate the more organized and disciplined Japanese to regain economic predominance in the late 80s. Whatever its faults, the movie's bitter fatalism and tragic nihilism is pure Kitano.
Jack D. gave it an 8:
Clunky but with several great scences. Underneath the non-stop violence, there's a subtext about race relations.
Michael F. gave it a 5:
The film starts off horribly and gets better but not by much. The only thing about this film that saved it was Kitano's excellent use of violence. The film constantly attempts to be an America indie. The movie is stupid but you can have some fun with it's stylized violence.
