Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.
Takeshi Kitano's Brother is a distinctive East-meets-West yakuza film that transplants his minimalist, deadpan violence aesthetic into Los Angeles with striking effect. The culture clash between Japanese yakuza code and American street gang culture gives the film a genuinely singular voice that sets it apart from typical crime fare. Kitano's stoic performance and direction carry his unmistakable style, though the plot follows a fairly predictable rise-and-fall criminal arc. The cinematography is competent but not exceptional by Kitano's standards — less visually inventive than Sonatine or Hana-bi. The ending delivers the fatalistic inevitability characteristic of Kitano's work but doesn't quite reach the emotional devastation of his best films. Novelty scores high for its genuinely unique cross-cultural conception and Kitano's inimitable authorial stamp.