You can tell from the minute it starts that "Brother," the latest film by Japanese director Takeshi Kitano (this is his first film made outside Japan) is going to be bloody. The carefully-measured pace and the deadly visage of star Beat Takeshi (note: the director and actor are the same man, who uses a pseudonym as an actor) create a brilliant sense of dread from the get-go.
But, unless you've seen one of Kitano's Japanese films, I suspect you won't guess just how messy and blood-soaked the screen gets in the following 113 minutes. Heads and fingers are lost and bullets are flying everywhere. Car bombs are exploding and hari-kari makes an appearance, too.
All of this gore is the evidence of Takeshi's premise, that the brotherhood of Japan's Yazuka gangsters is thicker than blood relations. The film also creates relationships that show this fraternal feeling can also overcome racial stereotypes and divisions.
When Yazuka tough Yamamoto, played pitch-perfectly by Takeshi, escapes being "hit" by his brotherhood, he flees to Los Angeles to find his younger half-brother Ken (Claude Maki), who has fallen in with a group of small-time African-American and Latino drug dealers. When Yamamoto (aka Aniki) arrives, he leads Ken and friends to the top of the L.A. criminal underworld, taking on any gang standing in the way: Mexicans, other Japanese and Italians.
Along the way, Aniki forges a special -- and apparently unlikely -- bond with Denny (Omar Epps), with whom he had a violent encounter on the street during his first day in America.
The cast runs the gamut and the performances are uneven. While Takeshi, Epps and a few others appear truly menacing, many of the rest are forcing it and aren't nearly convincing enough. In resorting to "crooked cops" and lazy stereotypes of Mexican drug lords and Italian mafiosi, Takeshi undermines his film. (But, for casting old school rapper Kool Moe Dee in a bit part, Takeshi deserves some points.)
And, sadly, like many director, Takeshi provides a perfect ending and then undermines THAT with an awful and unnecessary scene.
Shot in America and Japan, "Brother" is a masterpiece of pacing. Takeshi is adept at balancing violent, upsetting scenes with extended shots of soothing moments like the slow descent of a paper airplane launched from an L.A. rooftop. But, in the end, it is the violence and bloodshed that win out and one leaves the theatre a little shell shocked.
Grade: B-
"Brother" opened Fri., Aug. 17 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre. Click here for showtimes.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
