I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of my favourite 'Beat' Takeshi films and one of my favourite gangster films of all time: this is up there with the best of Scorsese and Coppola, a truly excellent little film which went under the radar for most people. Some people don't care for this film, feeling that it's too Western in approach, lacking in the Zen and tranquillity department, but I have to disagree. I feel like this was the pinnacle of Takeshi's career when it was made, as if his earlier movies (VIOLENT COP etc.) were all building up to this moment, a film in which everything is done just right.It's not a film to describe too much, as that would spoil the story. Really, it's a tale of the rise and fall of a criminal gang, a Scorsese movie done on a small-scale, if you will. I loved the American setting and the East meets West themes, which I found added to the story greatly. It's a very violent film, with many scenes punctuated by shocking death, but it never seems gratuitous, more expected. As both star and director, Takeshi is at the top of his game here. Never has he been more icy cold, more stony-faced – and yet Aniki has to be the most honourable and respectable gangster he's ever played. The supporting cast is great, too, especially Omar Epps, who's given a really interesting character to play. All in all, a fantastic little film and one I look forward to watching again.

Takeshi Taktino has been a great crime director since the eighties, his sort of step into western cinema "Brother" is a heavy hitting gangster film about loyalty, blood bonds and sometimes confusing story telling. The editing of the film is a bit confusing as it will have you seeing one thing before dropping you into a completely unrelated situation where you don't have a clue how the characters have gotten into the situation or why but that aside the cinematography is stunning, not through scenery or what's happening on screen but just through where the camera has been placed. The story when you break it down is more or less the same basis as a lot of Katino's films, the old ways vs the new but this so far has seemed to work. You might get a bit tired of seeing the same facial expression on Katino's face but again in this film it seems's to work.

Brother is another of Takeshi Kitano's 'Yakuza' thrillers, though this time the Yakuza are only a small part of the picture and only sometimes set in Japan. Akani (Kitano) is a hit-man who has bitten off more than he can chew- killed some of the wrong people, if at the right place at the right moment- and is advised to leave the country. He joins his brother in LA and soon he and a rag-tag group of hoodlums- mostly by way of the chilling, quiet audacity and cunning shooting skills of Anaki- rise the ranks as big-time crime lords in LA... that is, until, they mess with the Italians.This part of the story, admittedly, is rather typical and maybe just something Kitano felt he had to work with as one of those staples of the genre: rise and undoubted fall of a skilled but flawed criminal mastermind/killer. But Brother is most impressive not for its plot, which can occasionally appear ragged and disconnected (perhaps by design as Kitano is the editor), but for presentation. Kitano himself as a presence/star/actor is so cool that had he been around during Melville's time he could wipe the floor with Alan Delon and even Belmondo in the bad-ass department. This is just one component to Brother's success though since Kitano could put himself in just about anything and make that part of it look cool. Coolness isn't enough in Brother, and rightfully so; this isn't a fun movie entirely to watch, even if one might feel guilty in enjoying some of the more crazy shoot-outs and bouts of violence.The body count here, according to the trivia, is 78. This is a high number, but despite seeing it in a cut R-rated version it doesn't feel very compromised (mayhap it is and I'm being naive, but it's a first-time viewing all the same). It's a real sight to see to witness how Kitano makes these encounters of violence surprising; the first big one, with the first time Omar Epps and Kitano run into each other on the street (glass breaks, scoff and demand, glass cut to the face) the way its edited is fantastic in timing and perception- not minimalist, but something a few beats different then what one would normally see. We also see Kitano's knack at unusual but inventive framing devices, like a dark, massive shoot-out under a bridge at night with warring gangs, and only the lights from the guns blazing off of the bodies. Other moments like these are a sight of bodies laid out in the Japanese word of "Death", and when one gangster is already dead when a group in a car pull up to a house: Kitano focuses on that. The final shoot-out, as well, is unexpected.It's not a great movie, and suffers from the flaws mentioned at the top. Yet I'd recommend Brother to any genre fan, to those chest-deep in Yakuza flicks and one who's only aware of Kitano from Zatoichi. This is no Shoot Em Up, but a serious picture about the damning implications of a life devoted to self-destruction and annihilation for stupid, materialist and territorial goals. If it's not anything entirely new its film-making enriches what's conventional, and Kitano is always clever at bending the lines.

Another interesting movie from well known Japanese director Takeshi Kitano.Kitano established himself as an excellent director and in this one he acts good too.His face has no emotions in portraying this character.He had help from some American actors,especially Omar Epps.Probably you wonder what connection could possibly have Kitano and Epps but there are few scenes in witch they work perfectly.Movie has lots of blood,lots of dead people but it also shows us the way of living.The underground scene of Japan and America.Gangs,drugs,weapons,yakuza,Japanese and Americans.The only man who can connect this is Kitano and his excellent writing.This is definitely not the best Kitano movie but it's worth watching.Because of very good script.Because of very good acting.And finally because of Takeshi Kitano's talent.