Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

"Aniki," the 2000 movie written by, directed by, and starring Takeshi Kitano (Fireworks, Sonatine, Violent Cop, Boiling Point, etc.) begins in Japan and invades America. Although Yamamoto is a common Japanese name, I suspected that the yakuza (gangster) protagonist is named Yamamoto to invoke the name of the admiral who planned and executed the attack on Pearl Harbor. (This surmise was confirmed in an interview I saw in which Takeshi said that he also wanted to conquer America (he said, American culture) and also failed.

Yamamoto does not go to America planning to ravage it or to take it over He foils one murder of his boss,. His boss then unwisely ignores his advice and is gunned down, so Yamamoto needs to leave Japan for a while. After a few days of boredom in a Los Angeles hotel, he goes in search of his half-brother Ken (Kuroudo Maki), who is in one of LA's myriad rough neighborhoods. Denny, a homeboy played superbly by Omar Epps ("Love and Basketball"), makes the mistake of trying to shake down the apparent tourist who has wandered where he does not belong.

It turns out that Ken is a low-level drug dealer and that Denny hangs out with him. Denny is not sure this "aniki" (respected elder brother) is the same man who nearly killed him. The development of their relationship beyond the point where Denny is calling Yamamoto "brother," too, is the most interesting and original part of this exceedingly violent movie.

Yamamoto quickly dispatches to hell the cholos who are giving Ken and his friends trouble. The ad hoc gang with the very experienced gangster calling the shots — and doing much of the shooting — then massacres the cholos' bosses, the next higher echelons. With greater difficulty, they merge with the existing LA Japanese-American gangsters, and finally have to deal with the Italian-American Mafia.

As in many recent gangster movies, the mafiosi are aging and tired, but they still command a lot of firepower. Like Admiral Yamamoto, yakuza Yamamoto's initial successes are great, but fearless warriors eventually are overwhelmed by opponents with greater numbers and more armaments.

Early on, at least some of the violence is cartoonish and funny, but as the body count rises, the incessant killings are grim, and the only humor that remains is in Denny's awed by admiring fealty to the mostly silent and very alien gangster who is not a "brother" in the sense of being black, but functions an older brother in many ways. (It's hard for me to believe that Takeshi wrote Denny's dialogue and I suspect that Epps improvised it around the plotting Takeshi supplied. Wherever the words came from, Epps sells them convincingly.) Similarly, the basketball scenes in the gang headquarters seem likely to have been suggested and developed by the actors (Royale Watkins and Kuroudo Maki),

Although fewer than half of the slaying occur on-screen, the violence in "Brother" is very brutal; they are not done in the John Woo or Jerry Bruckheimer cartoon style. And some of the graphic violence stays with one a long time The movie is definitely not for the squeamish.

Moreover, those not accustomed to the long takes and limited camera movement that is common in Taiwanese and Japanese movies (Hou, Tsai, Ozun) may find some scenes static. There are fairly many calm talkie scenes but so many erupt with violence that the viewer must not let his or her guard down. I think that 20-30 minutes could have (should have) been pruned.

Takeshi Kitano is, apparently, the best-known stand-up comic in Japan, though one would never guess that from "Aniki" or "Fireworks" or "Boiling Point." In the English-speaking world, he is frequently considered a Japanese Clint Eastwood. Kitano says that all they have in common is that they are actors who also sometimes direct, but the way Kitano has himself filmed as an impassive mask is similar to how Sergio Leone filmed Eastwood in the 1960s, and speaking with his gun and minimal dialogue seems very "Dirty Harry." The humor in "Aniki" is like that of Eastwood, too: deadpan or delayed, slight, slow, malicious smiles.

The movie is not "average," but its excessive length and violence bring down the higher rating I would give for Omar Epps's relationship with Takeshi.

(The DVD has no bonus features.)



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age