Japan Synopsis
“Are You Japanese?”
A Japanese Yakuza gangster’s deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother’s gang.
Audience Engagement
399 audience reviews — more than 92% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (92th percentile) outruns trending popularity (71th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Brother. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Recorded Picture Company
Crime + Drama in Japan
203 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Crime and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Brother itself).
The 1999–2001 Japan Window
Brother holds position #63 of 205 Japan films in the 1999–2001 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Brother premiered in 2000 — a quieter year for Japan cinema with only 64 titles in our catalog. The 2000s overall landed 1020 films and series across 10 years of activity.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 54m runtime, production spent $105K per minute on screen and earned $134K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 63 other Japan films in 2000.
The 1313th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Brother, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- sake · 5
- loyalty · 4
- femme fatale · 4
- war on drugs · 2
- california · 20
- assassination · 17
- drug dealer · 13
- los angeles · 9
- culture clash · 7
- yakuza · 93
- sibling relationship · 38
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,731 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (62nd percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.3 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Crime productions specifically: #103 of 402 (top 26%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | United States of America, Japan, United Kingdom |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | English, Italian, Japanese, Spanish |
| Production Companies | Recorded Picture Company, Office Kitano, Bandai Visual, Fuzzy Bunny Films, Little Brother Inc. |
| Runtime | 1h 54m |
| Release Date | December 13, 2000 |
| IMDb | tt0222851 |
| Official Site | www.office-kitano.co.jp |