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The top grossing film in Russia in 1997, Brother follows the plight of Danila (Sergei Bodrov), a just-out-of-the-army Russian who travels to St. Petersburg to rendezvous with his brother Viktor (Viktor Sukuhorukov), a well-known contract killer. Quickly, Danila becomes involved in his brotherís business and, consequently, his brotherís shady, trust-no-one lifestyle. With its starkly shot landscapes, grainy texture, and killers who care about righting the contemporary social wrongs and protecting the innocent, Brother instantly reminded me of John Wooís early Hong Kong work like The Killer and Hard-Boiled. Both the aforementioned films had very simplistic plot structures that ultimately translated to a battle of good and evil fought in a hail storm of bullets and grenades. And while writer/director Alexei Balabanov consciously decided against including the gratuitous gun play one usually expects in a Hong Kong action flick, this heightens the reduced nature of the plotóDanila vs. Any and All Comersóand allows the viewer to further understand the nature of Danilaís character and the cruel natures of current Russian society.
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