Critics reviews

Kitano's beat is an altogether grimmer affair, laden with dark irony and unexpurgated scenes of violence. It's rougher stuff than most would expect, though not unrewarding in its own horrific way.

"Brother" is a typical Kitano film in many ways, but not one of his best ones. Too many of the killing scenes have a casual, perfunctory tone: lots of gunfire, a row of enemies lies dead, the plot moves on. Finally so many people are dead that the movie looks more like a shooting gallery or a video game than a stylized crime parable.

Alertness and playful wit always count in Kitano films. In "Brother," relationships are not explained, and the viewer must fill in the spaces between scenes.

The central relationship apart, the moments which have some spark are the lighter, low-key ones, like gang members betting on whether a man or a woman will pass the window next, a big-goon minder struggling to play basketball, and Takeshi's continuously bemused expression. When "Brother" is more serious, blood splashes everywhere and soaks the audience.

Despite the violence in his films, Mr. Kitano is a rigid moralist, and a karmic retribution usually takes place in most of his work. That Zen-like attention to the cosmic scales can feel a little monotonous and too heavily worked out -- a Post-It carved in stone.

A template-adhering Kitano film still trumps the best efforts of many others, however, as Brother proves.