Aniki, mon frère

'Brother', Takeshi Kitano's last masterpiece, is, hands down, the best movie I've seen in 2001. Although it is very violent, it also contains a strange emotional layer rarely seen in a yakuza film. A lot of people are killed, but not a single death in the film has no meaning. The beautiful soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi only adds more emotional impact to the movie. One thing is clear to me now: Takeshi Beat Kitano is a man who knows how to make a compelling movie that is hard and tender at the same time.

Very minimilistic approach to the Yakuza or Mafia genre yet so intriguing that it keeps you entertained throughout without even showing too much action scenes yet occasional brust of headshots. It's not like the american films nor like the japanese which touch the genre, yet it still manages to incorporate the good aspects from both and give a good entertainer if you are not in for something too fancy. Kitano does a good job of writing, directing, starring, and even editing the film, that to successfully managing to give a great gangster flick of sorts.

As i read most of the previous comments most of us agree that this film is one of a kind. We all enjoyed it on some other level, above and beyond the regular. It shows certain characteristics that we find most interesting, honor,loyalty. Good acting, strange plot, unpredictability. I hope there are more films like this one out there, but its hard to find. I watched this movie as an accident, I hope if someone that reads this knows of another similar movie that is JUST as good or better (if thats possible), this movie has been one of those movies that I will never be able to forget, it has been 1 year since i have seen it last, and every moment sticks out clear as day. Excellent movie, great job Takeshi! Good comments everyone, well said...well thought, pros and cons. cheers

All of you giving this 10 out of 10, what drugs are you on ? What exactly was the point ? Characters without name come and go, people get shot, fingers get cut off. The dialogue for the whole movie probably totals about 3 pages. Why is anyone dedicated to the violent silent Aniki ? Who knows. Why do guys kill themselves to prove a point ? Who knows. Forget about plot, there is none. I love the people who praise the long, still camera shots as if there is some deep meaning behind them. More likely this trash would be a 20 minute movie without the long boring shots of nothing happening.

Although the plot was interesting, the bloodshed and gore was too much. Actually, the majority of the movie was blood and guts. If that's your thing, you will like this movie. I don't and I didn't. The acting by the leads, such as it was, was fair but this simply wasn't my type of movie. If it wasn't a free viewing, I would have been upset at wasting decent money.

"May contain a spoiler" A lot of people like this film a lot, I have my reservations about it.The violence is part of the story because it's a Mafia film. However in some point in the film there was nothing more than violence in the film and the ending was so predicted you could see it come. The characters change very little and they weren't sympathetic enough to care about. Of-course there was the usual presenting of the difference between 2 societies which is typical to a movie which is directed by a director who comes from one background(in this case Japan) and the was filmed in another one(in this case USA) There are 2 reasons why I didn't hate the film completely:- 1)The fact that LA was presented as a ghost town,which was a nice surprise. 2)It made me laugh in the most absurd situation. Without these 2 things I would give the film a complete 1 out of 10

This film is a little slow going at first,but once the blood starts flowing,it turns into a very entertaining action flick in the tradition of the film noirs of the fifties.If there's a lesson to be learned here,its if you have to have a turf war,whatever you do,don't mess with the Italians!

The first time I have heard of Takeshi Kitano was when the movie Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman was released into the video stores. After watching it I was interested to see Takeshi's filmography. The next movie of his that I had watched was called Violent Cop and that movie made me even more interested. After watching these two movies I was lead to one of Takeshi's latest films called Brother. I was rather impressed with the variety of actors used in this film and I thought that Takeshi Kitano himself was brilliant. This movie is a type of gangland war movie between the yakuza and the other mafias in America. This is a top quality movie and a must see.