This "Big Brother" by Takeshi Kitano was filmed in 2000. It should be a work produced by Takeshi Kitano, as an influential director in Japan, in cooperation with Hollywood. In the arrangement of the story, the film also sets the space as Japan and the United States. The film tells the story of Yamamoto, a Japanese club boss played by Takeshi Kitano, who lost power in the internal struggle of the club and could only live in the United States alone. Although the main location of the film is in the United States, the main characters, the type of story and the main line are still Japanese.
For a long time, an important label of gangster movies has been the aesthetics of violence. Many classic films, including directors such as Johnnie To and Martin Scorsese, are often associated with "violence aesthetics". But what kind of concept is this? Violence, as the most important driving force since the emergence of human evolution, has run through the entire history of human development. Whether or not violence is the only solution to a conflict between biological individuals has also become one of the hallmark differences between humans and other non-human animals. Other differences include thinking ability, language, and ability to use tools. In a sense, violence is one of the essential characteristics of life, and life is based on violence in a broad sense. Even today, five or six thousand years after the emergence of human civilization, violence is still ubiquitous in every person in the world. a corner. The strong against the weak, the weak against the young, the young against non-human animals, and the animals against other creatures, are full of violence. Formally, physical violence, verbal violence, and even expressions, tone, and silence can become violence. But how does this violence relate to beauty? In my opinion, as the most primitive reaction of creatures to the same kind and non-kind, violence has no beauty at all. Not only is it not beautiful, but violence is ugly.
So in many gangster movies, what is the beauty that the audience feels apart from the exciting scenes? I think that's the beauty of tragedy in the aesthetic sense. Lu Xun's famous definition, "Tragedy is to destroy the valuable things in life for others to see, and comedy is to tear apart the worthless things in life for others to see." In my opinion, tragedy is the essence of life, and comedy is the inclusion of tragedy. Among them, in the face of trauma, suffering, and the inevitable ultimate death in life, the reactions of desire, will, perseverance, vulnerability, etc., are tragic. The beauty in many gangster movies is the beauty of tragedy achieved through violence. The one that left a deep impression on me was the scene in "Infernal Affairs" in which the policeman played by Huang Qiusheng fell from the roof of the building to the car without warning. Similarly, in "Big Brother", the scene where Shinji Terashima shot and blew himself up in a few sentences brought a strong shock to the audience. What moves people's hearts may be the disrespectful attitude of the gang members who put life and death aside. Contrary to the views of many people, I just feel that in the eyes of this so-called old-fashioned young and dangerous boy, there is neither reason nor emotion. It's just contempt and equanimity for one's own life and the lives of others. But it is also the connection with death in this way that contains beauty.
The few American accomplices arranged in the film and the sensational black guy at the end are what I think is a little bit of failure. Compared with other gangster films of Takeshi Kitano, the cooperation with Hollywood is bound to be somewhat compromised.
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