Brother: The Jeffreview

Last week I watched Brother, Japanese director Takeshi Kitano's first "American" film. I call it an "American" film because it was shot in LA, and takes place in LA, though I don't think it ever got more than an art house release in the US. Compared to the other Takeshi Kitano movies I've seen, this movie is the most "American," but it's not really that American at all. Takeshi Kitano is an extremely popular director in Japan, and his movies have a distinctly Japanese flavor about them. Many of his movies have been about Yakuza gangsters, and this is no exception. But despite the gun-toting gangster theme, it is about as different from American gangster movies, which are so often nowadays influenced by the John Woo Hong Kong gangster movies, which were in turn influenced by American action movies, then taken up a notch.

No, Kitano's gangster movies are not taken up any notches, which is what makes them so effective. His gangsters do not leap balletically through the air, firing their guns in slow motion. His gunshots are not drawn out, echoing like thunder. Have you ever heard a real gunshot? It's not like the movies at all. It's like a sudden clap punctuating quiet air, a pop that leaves you wondering for a moment, what just happened. And that's how the violence happens in Kitano's gangster movies. His movies are quiet, contemplative, lingering moments that rest upon his almost-wordless main character in a way that leaves you knowing that he's thinking of something, but not exactly sure what it is he's thinking about.

And Kitano's lead actor is perfectly suited for his style of filmmaking. Takeshi Kitano's movies often star the popular Japanese actor 'Beat' Takeshi, who also appeared in the American movies Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (starring David Bowie, 1983) and Johnny Mnemonic (starring Keanu Reeves, 1995). The thing is, 'Beat' Takeshi and Takeshi Kitano are the same person. He just uses different names, depending on whether he's being the actor of the director. I don't know if he refers to himself in the third person, but that would be pretty amusing. It's a too-often-told anecdote that 'Beat' Takeshi was in a motorcycle accident a few years back that paralyzed half of his face, but with his deadpan, quiet, expressionless manner of acting, you can't tell which side is the paralyzed side.

Kitano's gangster movies are described as violent, though I wouldn't say that the movies are violent so much as I would say the movie contain violence, which is pretty violent. So the violence is pretty violent, but the movie isn't. Does that make sense? It's the harsh contrast of the quiet, contemplative scenes juxtaposed with the sudden, violent moments that heighten the violence. It's not like Rambo where people are constantly running around angrily, yelling at each other, posturing with guns, so that when someone gets shot it's simply the next natural act in the equation. It's more like You're standing there, waiting for the bus, then suddenly BANG the guy next to you is dead, and you're wondering what happened and whether it's worth it for you to hide under the bench. The shock of the suddenness of the violence makes it feel that much more like real violence.

There you go, four paragraphs into my little Jeffreview of Brother, and I have hardly said a word about the movie. Okay, Brother stars 'Beat' Takeshi and Omar Epps, who is pretty much the only young black actor who didn't appear in The Brothers, a comedy which came out the following year. Takeshi is a middle-aged career Yakuza in Japan when a gang war turns against his "family" and he is forced to leave Japan. He goes to LA, where he had sent his brother to go to college. Instead, he finds that his brother lives in the ghetto, a low-level drug dealer. Instead of pursuing his studies, he has become a part of the criminal underworld. And that's something that Takeshi's character knows all about. With the assistance of some similarly-exiled members of his old Yakuza family, to whom he has always been a "big brother," Takeshi shows his Americanized kin how criminal enterprises really work.

I won't tell you too much of the plot, as I think it's a movie worth seeing, and I don't want to ruin it for you. Kitano plays around a bit with some gangster movie conventions, turning them in unexpected directions. Here's a bit of a scene spoiler: if you want to avoid it, skip to the next paragraph. There's a scene in the phenomenally popular Hong Kong movie A Better Tomorrow, which made John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat into gangster movie superstars, in which Chow, about to enter a meeting which he knows will turn bloody, hides spare guns in flowerpots outside of the conference room. Then when the gunfight erupts, as he fights his way out of the room, he has backup weapons within easy reach. In Brother, his gang hides some guns in the men's room before a meeting. But when 'Beat' sends his brother to the bathroom to get the guns, he is being watched by a guard and cant get them. He comes back to the meeting unarmed. Fortunately, 'Beat' is not without a backup plan. Also in this scene, 'Beat' is meeting with a Mexican gang to negotiate for territory. He speaks no English, using his brother as a translator. When his brother goes to the bathroom, the Mexicans speak freely in front of 'Beat'. "Why are you making a deal with them?" "We'll make a deal now, then later we'll kill all these fucking Japs." The movie cliché would be for the foreign character to suddenly reveal that he understands what the others are talking about, like Jackie Chan in Rush Hour ("You assumed I couldn't speak English") and Mark Wahlberg in The Corruptor ("You speak Chinese?" "Doesn't everyone in Chinatown?"). But 'Beat' speaks no English. When his brother returns from the bathroom, they gun down the Mexicans. 'Beat' explains to their corpses, "I understand 'fucking Japs'."

I describe Brother as Kitano's more American film because in addition to taking place in LA (with several locations I recognized, including the shopping plaza in Japantown), the movie has a bit more action than the other Kitano movies I've seen. It seems a little faster-paced, but it is still atmospheric and contemplative by Hollywood standards, and you shouldn't expect a Hollywood gangster action movie. It definitely has Takeshi Kitano's scent all over it, and not just because he defies Hollywood convention by not killing the black guy (Omar Epps) first. It's not what I'd call pure Takeshi Kitano style the way Sonatine or Hana-Bi (Fireworks) is, but it is also more accessible to those new to Kitano. It's an unusual treatment of subject matter, gangsters, which everyone has seen before. It's different. Go rent it, I think it's worth a look.

© 2002 Jeffrey P. Hui