Symbolism of Paper Airplane

To me what always stood out to me was the technicals aspect of that scene. It fits w/ Takeshi's randomness and sureal style of film making. If you think about it the camera operator had no pre-conceived notion of where the paper plane is going to fly, so it feels almost cinema-verite, making you feel more in the film so to speak.

It's unbelievable how many posters on this entire "Brothers" board (the other threads) don't get what this film is about. If they've watched other Kitano films, you'd think they'd have a good clue. Actually, you sort of hit on a scene which illustrates the "point". Who usually makes paper airplanes and flies them? Children, right? So what are the two doing with the paper airplanes when they're suppose to be tough gangsters? It's foreshadowing the real idea of "brotherhood" which is most clearly revealed at the end of the film. I read somewhere else on this board that Kitano's character accepts his destiny and thus sacrifices himself at the end. But Kitano accepts this destiny because he has no choice anymore, not because he wants to. Being an old Yakuza, he has gone through cycles of this bullsh.t, for example his being forced to or saved by having to go to America. He doesn't see much hope for his future which will just keep repeating itself until it will end probably as it ends in this film. It's just a matter of time. He understands the code as well as the bs that is also involved (ie. with the people in it), so the paper airplane is a subtle rejection of this kind of life. The two are sharing something non-violent in this scene. A yearning for the innocence of youth? We don't exactly know how Kitano's character got involved with the Yakuza in the first place, but a part of his adult self is going on automatic pilot but still understands this. People who think being Yakuza is cool is exactly what Kitano's target audience is. He's saying "I'll give you all the violence you want to get you into it but this is what it really is, a TRAP, most likely a death trap" as he so clearly shows at the end of the film. Kitano is using the Yakuza/gangster genre to knock some sense into the kids who think that being a "gangsta" is oh-so cool. For instance, Kitano's character has made sacrifices for others to escape this lifestyle even before the film's end such as his real Japanese brother who he sends to America, but the kid doesn't get "it" and quits his job to become a "gangsta". And who does Kitano save in the end, not this Japanese brother but Omar Epp's character, who he sees having something in him that might just "get" it. Epps in the car at the end of the film gets Kitano's sacrifice and his gesture of "brotherly" love. Kitano is giving him a new start after what happened to his real family. Now, we don't know what Epps' character will do with this new start, but Kitano gave him the option, just as he did his "Japanese" brother who squandered it. See, Kitano is not preachy about what he really is getting at in this film, I am (preachy, that is, at least in this post). He respects his audience's intelligence. Anyways, that's the reason for the paper airplane scene. Doesn't it seem pretty incongruous in a film with so much violence in it? Am I wrong or am I wrong? Probably.

Amazing scene, one of the only ones in this movie that stands out...

I noticed a lot of Kitano's work -- and Japanese film in general -- has themes of childhood; how we looked at things when we were younger. Paper airplane is something most adults don't do.

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pre·ten·tious: characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

for me, the overriding feeling this film gave me is one of a man who's resigned to be what he will be, even though it is about as ostracising to the wider world as anything which a man could be, is. the paper airplane will go where it will go; it can't be directed and will fulfill its path. that's what i got from it anyway, there are plenty of ways to interpret that scene and that's probably not the way it was intended ;) :P