30 Second Bottom Line: A Japanese gangster comes to the US after he is targeted for a hit. Once he arrives in LA he is destined to repeat his violent ways with gangs in America.
Story Line: Yamamoto (Takeshi Kitano) is involved in Yakuza (syndicate) warfare in Japan and after the consolidation of two crime families, a contract is placed on him because he is not trusted. As the hit man owes him a favor, Yamamoto is given the opportunity to change his identity with a false passport and he then leaves for Los Angeles to meet with his younger bother Ken (Kuroudo Maki). Because the hit man himself is not trusted, he fakes the death of Yamamoto by killing a homeless man, after dressing him in Yamamoto's clothes and then beating him to death beyond recognition.
Ken and his gang are street thugs, pushing drugs, a multi-cultural crew with Asian, Latino and African American members. One of his main guys is Denny (Omar Epps). As luck would have it, Yamamoto has a violent confrontation with Denny before Ken introduces them later at a meeting. Ken refers to Yamamoto as Aniki, meaning brother in Japanese, and so they all come to regard him as "Aniki."
After Latino drug dealer, Victor, who is Ken's supplier, threatens him, Aniki beats Victor just savagely enough, as a warning that Ken's crew is taking over (with Aniki's help of course). This event is enough to start a gang war. The Latinos are no match for Aniki and lots of bodies are soon falling in very violent ways. Soon Aniki is trying to consolidate gangs the way it was done in Japan. The rival Asian gang leader is Shirase (Masaya Kato) and he has no interest in joining forces. They do eventually come together when one of Aniki's men arrives from Japan and "stakes his life" in a conversation with Shirase. Much of what happens in the film is based upon honor by men who are not very honorable.
After the Asians come together, they purge some of the African-American gangs and then the Mafia wants 50% of their business while they only want to share 20%. The Asians decide to take on the Mafia and they soon learn that their experience in Japanese gang wars may not have prepared them for fighting the Italians.
Tell Me More About It: If you're into gangster movies you may like the film. For me, while maybe gratuitous is not the right word for it, the violence was painful to watch to the point of me wanting the film to be over. Multiple, in your face, violent, events start to wear on me after awhile and I think I have thick skin in that regard. Without doubt if you are squeamish on violence, this will be too much for you.
On the other hand, if you are a Kitano fan who likes the aggressive nature of his prior films, Brother is right up your alley. However, there is an additional proviso, which is that this film has a new cultural setting and flavor. This is Kitano's first film made in the United States and it includes a glance inside the criminal aspects of multiple cultures, such as Asian, Italian, Latino and African American. In that last regard, this film is somewhat akin to Ghost Dog and Romeo Must Die. It's also linked to the classic film by Akira Kurosawa, The Seven Samurai, in that when gangs or groups go to war, they fight until every man on one side has been defeated... and that means to the death.
There is a certain satire in the film because of the music, which is a jazzy type of play that is a combination of Miles Davis and Herb Alpert. It better fits a film like Playing by Heart, a soft touch film, rather than a hard core one like this.
Some may find the stone face acting by Kitano OK, and maybe it is appropriate for the material. I wanted a little more character development, and the acting styles that Epps and Kitano gave me left me cold. That said, many of the characters left you cold because not long after you saw them, they really were cold, dead bodies...lots of them.
R (exceptionally strong violence; pervasive language; brief nudity)
DVD