Omar Epps (right) stars in Takeshi Kitano's new film about yakuza, or Japanese organized crime.

Omar Epps Gets an Eyeful

Brother From Another Gangsta Planet

by Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

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Cultures all over the world have their version of the Mafia, gangsta life, thug life—whatever you want to call it. And, along with this variety of world thuggery, there is a global variety of the gangster flick. In these flicks, high-octane criminals are drawn in bold relief. Be they smart, stupid, evil or inwardly virtuous outlaws, they are usually glamorous.

"Brother," from Japanese director Takeshi Kitano, is no exception. Over the past several years, Kitano has been a prolific producer of stylish and eccentric takes on Japanese organized crime, or the yakuza. As in many of his other flicks, in "Brother" he stars as a member of the yakuza, in fact, he is the primary character, Yamamoto or "Aniki." Here Kitano also continues his tradition combining virulent violence, comedy and a jazzy musical score into a high art form.

But while "Brother" contains the common elements of the gangster flick, it also reminds us about the genre's cultural specificity. We want to identify with the tough guy, the outlaw because he is bucking the system, living life on the edge by his own rules and wits. So Black folks could probably identify with Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown in "New Jack City" or Lawrence Fishburne as Bumpy Johnson in "Hoodlum" more than with Al Pacino in "The Godfather' or than with James Gandolfini in "The Sopranos" (especially since Tony Soprano flashed his racist card this season).

"Brother" is designed, first of all, to appeal to Japanese audiences. Aniki, the slick gangster in "Brother," is unemotional and methodical as he shoots and cuts up his enemies. His young lieutenants seem to all be wearing Armani. As he is displaced from Japan to Los Angeles, he mows down his new adversaries, all the while displaying the true gangster's ability to survive.

When we first see Omar Epps (which is why we are writing about this flick) in the role of a two-bit drug dealer named Denny, he is woofing and bassing in Aniki's face before he is promptly struck by Aniki with a broken bottle. While Denny holds his bloody eye, Kitano settles at the outset the matter about who is tougher. Black gangster Denny/ebony-hued Omar Epps of "Juice" and "In Too Deep" pedigree is quickly put in his place. In this Japanese version of gangster cinema, the threat of the African American male is neutralized. Even gangsta rappers wouldn't have anything on the yakuza.

Other culture-specific matters are the traditions of the yakuza, which apparently include suicide and self-mutilation to prove one's honor and devotion. This do-it-yourself bloodletting might feel a little out of character for those of us weaned on fare like "Scarface" In our American gangster flicks, people get done, they don't do themselves.

I actually thought "Brother" was just as believable and entertaining as any other shoot-em-up. It's taken a lifetime of conditioning to accept twisted codes of gangster honor that manage to accommodate, all at once, respect, murder and romance under one umbrella. But the (Black) brother who saw this flick with me, who is from a certain Northeast city where shooting is not uncommon, dismissed it as totally unrealistic. His disbelief started with Epps making peace with a man who had gouged his eye and was reinforced when a gangster shot himself in the head.

A fundamental rule of our culture-specific American gangsterism is to survive, not die.

Screened at Filmfest D.C. 2001.

-- May 17, 2001

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