[atsonicpark]

Yeah, Getting Any? is hilarious and brilliant. Probably one of the ultimate Kitano films. Love the pacing and style. Watch it again. I used to think Boiling Point was his worse but it's now one of my favorites.

Brother is one I just hated, despite it having some of the best music in any movie, ever. Besides that, the scene with the paper airplane was my favorite scene in any Kitano film, besides the scene where the girl walks by the masks and those multi-colored paper fans that were all spinning in DOLLS (which I contend is one of the most beautiful films ever).

However, 2 things:THere's apparently a DRASTICALLY different Japanese version I haven't seen, that's supposedly a billion times better, according to the few people who have seen both. I have never found a .torrent of it, so I'm thinking of buying it.

Second, it works really well if you realize that art was imitating reality. I didn't realize it at first, until after seeing TAKESHIS' and GLORY.. that whole meta/self-referential/self-reflective REFLEXIVE style and all is not uncommon to Kitano, who not only references his old films, he even puts clips from his old films in his new films (see that short he made with the guy watching KIDS RETURN, which was recently voted in some Japanese magazine as the 12th greatest film in the history of Japan -- weird, considering I would consider that at the lower end of Kitano's filmography). He certainly puts scenes from old films in new films; Takeshis' is almost a greatest his of his scenes (gotta love the scene on the beach where he shoots everyone in the world with a machine gun for 10 minutes... the references to past works is numerous.. okay, it's on a BEACH.. the machine gun shooting is exactly like BOILING POINT, BROTHER, and SONATINE.. he shoots SAMURAIS -- Zatoichi -- and YAKUZA men -- most of his films .. and cops... plus, obviously, it's on the BEACH. I already said that. But... isn't it funny that the only movie without "a scene at a sea" is Achilles an the Tortoise? Yet, if you look REALLY close, in ONE scene, you can see a sea in a painting.. brilliant).

Anyway, it acts as 1) a parody of his previous work, 2) a remake of his previous work (mainly Sonatine), and 3) Kitano trying to understand America. In real life and in film. This goes with the parody thing (it isn't a coincedence that it's his most violent film -- also, who can forget that hilariously WRONG ending, easily the worst/stupidest/most hilariously bad thing Kitano has ever filmed). I think it was Kitano saying, "I don't get America. I'm gong to start filming the film my way." and then halfway through, plagued with production fuck-ups (keep in mind, Kitano never films with a completed script), he said, "Okay, America, here, I'm going to make an 'American film' and just get it over with." I could be completely wrong, but ... a Japanese dude who can't speak English, leading a bunch of basketball playing black dudes who he meets in a ghetto? And then, there's the scenes ripped straght out of Sonatine which are just bizarre, and you know that dude who's in EVERY Kitano film (aside from OUTRAGE...)? Ken whatever.. or Ren... Ren Oyishi or some shit? You know the guy. Anyway, he's in this for a few minutes, and he kills himself almost immediately. He says some nonsense about honor and death and strangely/gruesomely blows his brains out in front of everyone and gets blood and brain matter on the rival mafia boss.

...So, if viewing BROTHER as some kind of weird experiment, it's kinda cool, and is the only way I can appreciate what amounts to 2 hours of tedium.