Customer Reviews

American Yakuza

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a huge, huge fan of things Japanese. I ran a feudal Japan special interest group for Mensa for 12 years, writing and researching all aspects of samurai, ninja, and so on. So I pretty much see any Japanese-related movie I can get my hands on.

In American Yakuza, Viggo Mortensen plays Nick Davis/David Brandt - an ex-con that gets wrapped up in the Yakuza. Yakuza are the Japanese mob, and they are having issues with the American mob. There is a lot of culture-clash going on, and love interest. Ryo Ishibashi is the co-star from the Japanese side.

Don't be put off by the roughness of Viggo's character at the beginning. There some AMAZING plot twists in store, and the level of acting and scriptwriting is just amazing. It's a real movie about real people - the fights are all quite realistic, the way people react to each other is amazing. The revelations at the end make you literally want to watch the entire movie a second time to watch for things you missed the first time around.

Key Warning: Do NOT READ the blurbs on the box or the reviews that divulge what happens in the ending part of the movie. You ruin the entire meaning behind the movie if you go into it knowing what is going to happen. You need to watch it pretty much blind the first time, and let things unfold for you. If you do, you will be well rewarded. There are many things I'd love to praise in particular about Viggo's acting in this one but to do so would be to ruin the movie. So watch it and see for yourself.

This film was a brilliant surprise in comparison to the many "mafia", and "karate" movies available today. This film was an intelligent, alternative to the standard "shoot first and ask questions later", action films that are so popular in the nineties. Viggo Mortensen plays a character that was released from prison, and accidentally saves a member of the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) and thereby achieves a high status within the Yakuza. And this is just the beginning of one of the richest action movie plots in the last century. Not only do the actors give incredible, believable performances, but the plot is plausible as well. I will not go into further details on the plot for fear of giving something away, but suffice it to say, it is filled with twists, turns, surprises, and REALISTIC dialogue. My highest recommendation of this film is that their action scenes are not exaggerated. They are things that could realistically happen. No one, out-runs explosions, no one dodges an unheard of amount of bullets, and the characters don't all blow things up first and ask questions later. The characters have depth, and are intelligent, and very well acted. I cannot stress enough that this is a quality piece of film, far beyond the capacity of most action films. If you are in the mood for tense, and electrifying action that is plausible and realistic see this movie!

This film is only for those who can appreciate "real" cinema. It respects Japanese tradition, and utililizes the martial art's "Codes of Honor". The story itself is well written, with plot twists, suprises and a gratifying conclusion. The director's guidance and the cinematographer's visionary skills are to be praised as well. However, the true mastery in this piece is in the acting. Viggo Mortensen and his counterpart Ryo Ishibashi deserve the highest marks. Their realistic, on-screen duo performance makes Gibson and Glover in Lethal Weapon and Tucker and Chan in Rush Hour, pale in comparison. Overall, I highly recommend American Yakuza as a solid piece of work, for all discerning film-goers.

Honor and loyalty are the stories here, beyond the action of the Mafia-Yakuza warfare theme. The "war" keeps you on the edge of your seat, but the emotional conflict made it more than just another action movie. Viggo Mortensen and Ryo Ishibashi are excellent together onscreen. One of my favorite movies.

Are the themes skillfully woven throughout this tale of warfare between the Japanese Yakuza and the Italian/American Mafia, which is helped along by a crooked FBI agent. The plot is fairly straightforward, and what would normally be a `surprise' element, the identity of the undercover FBI man, is given to us right up front, in the Amazon review above, and on the back of the DVD case, so it's no surprise when you see him reporting to his liaison in a commercial freezer.

What sets this film apart from the usual "mob" or "chop-socky" fare, is the focus of the film; how an agent can go so deeply undercover that he loses his way, and identifies completely with his "targets." This has been handled before; undoubtedly the best film of its kind has got to be Al Pacino's "Donnie Brasco," co-staring Johnny Depp. But "Brasco" had the advantage of two stellar stars at the top of their form, and a story, no matter how incredible it seemed at times, that was based on real events.

The main strength of "American Yakuza," and in my humble opinion the reason the film will either work for you or won't, are the performances of, and the developing relationship between, the two main characters, played by Viggo Mortensen, and Ryo Ishibashi.

Mortensen plays FBI Agent David Brandt, playing ex-con and hardened criminal, Nick Davis, while Ishibashi plays senior Yakuza lieutenant "Chui" Sawamoto. Brandt's working in a warehouse, driving a forklift truck, but his real job, as unlikely as it may see - what with him being a blond Caucasian an' all, the FBI must have been all out of Japanese agents that week! - is to somehow infiltrate the Tendo crime family, who use the warehouse as a front for their nefarious activities.

A perfect opportunity presents itself when Brandt practically stumbles into an attempted "hit" on the head of the family itself, Isshin Tendo. In helping foil the hit he directly saves the life of Sawamoto, Tendo's right-hand-man, and nurses him back to health in a rat-hole motel room. Once he's sure Sawamoto is going to live, he makes a call which brings the surviving Yakuza running, guns drawn and trigger fingers twitching, to reclaim their compatriot. Brandt wisely watches the action from a diner opposite the building, a move that undoubtedly stops him ending up as co-lateral damage!

Sawamoto now owes Brandt/Davis his life, and slowly brings him into the Yakuza organization, putting him into increasingly responsible and stressful situations, testing his newfound friend. But all is not wine and roses in the Yakuza family; some of Sawamoto's underlings are not at all happy with their boss bringing the American "gaijan" into the fold. He has to prove himself, and this he does, slowly but surely, `til he is at last accepted as a full member of the Tendo family.

As Brandt becomes more and more accepted by the Yakuza, and increasingly drawn into their ethos of honor and duty, he finds himself more and more at odds with the actions and plans of his bosses in the FBI. They make a strategic alliance with the Mob; in as much as they won't interfere to stop the Mob taking out the Yakuza... where will Brandt's loyalties lie? This is the central question of the film. As I said before, the relationship between Brandt and Sawamoto is what makes or breaks this film; Mortensen and Ishibashi give the parts their all.

The basic set-up is interesting, a kind of Mexican Standoff, the FBI, the Mob, and the Yakuza. And the way each group is portrayed brings a smile to the lips; the FBI is, in turns, stupid and duplicitous, the Mob are loud, back-slapping, cigar-chomping, foulmouthed scum - no doubt from "New Joisey!" - and the Yakuza? The Yakuza are cool! They wear really sharp black suits and white shirts, they're well groomed, they have a genuine code of honor and duty they live and die by, they are unfailingly polite to each other, and when Sawamoto verbally lashes out at subordinates who fail him, you just know its gotta hurt!

The film is well constructed, with more than a nod towards John Woo in the action scenes; double fisted gunplay and slow-mo shots of spent cartridges dropping to the floor. There's a romantic sub-plot that works well in the context of the story, and one particular scene where the camera swoops through a set of double doors into a white-draped room for a Yakuza ceremony that is really quite beautifully done. The final scene, after the obligatory climactic gun battle, is unexpectedly moving. There is much to enjoy in this perfect little jewel of a B Movie that aspires to be so much more, and I recommend it highly.

PLEASE NOTE: There is nothing in the "Technical Information" section of the Amazon review, or on the DVD case itself, about the Aspect Ratio of this film. It is presented in Full Screen, 1.33:1, although it doesn't appear to have been Panned `n' Scanned.

It was very predictable ending and not so exciting plots or anything, but was fast pace and entertaining enough for me to watch for 90 minutes. There were a lot of bloody scenes as expected, but it was not about all the actions in the movie, which kept my interest. It was about trust, loyalty, brotherhood between two men who came from the two different worlds.

I admit I saw this because of Viggo, but it sat on my "to be watched" pile for nearly a year because of that awful cover. This is a very good movie. Not perfect by any means, and not necessarily original (comparisons have been made to Donnie Brascoe) but very good. I thought the relationship between Viggo and the Yakuza boss was wonderfully developed. On the other hand, I thought the romantic subplot was silly -- also thankfully short, TRULY a subplot, and it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.

Some people describe this as a "B" movie, and while I see their point, I don't necessarily agree. Say 5 stars for a "B" movie, 3.5 stars for an "A" movie!

This movie is about honor, and family. Although the director tries to show a parallel between the Italian mafia and the Japanese yakuza, one glaring difference stands out. The mafia is held together by fear, while the yakuza is held together by loyalty. Honor, family, and loyalty: Three things we all can use more of. The Japanese cultural tradition of honor leading to tragedy runs throughout. An inspiration.

American Yakuza is based on an interesting premise, that an American can be accepted into a Japanese crime family. I'm interested in Japanese culture, though I know next to nothing about the Yakuza. I thought to myself when I saw this on sale, "That's less than the price of a movie ticket." Well, I sure got my money's worth. There are some good things in this movie, but perhaps not what the producers intended.

For starters this movie is full of TERRIBLE acting. Not bad acting, not so-so acting. I mean REALLY BAD ACTING. Believe it or not, that's actually one of my pros for this movie. At times the acting is so bad that it provided some "unintended humor" to spice up an otherwise dry scene. The actor who plays Vigo's agency boss is the highlight for me. I'm laughing now just thinking about it. In fact, only a few of the Japanese actors are watchable, but that is all lost in the bad performances all around.

Many people will be drawn in by the star power of Vigo Mortensen. Let me just say that while I think he can be good at times, this is hardly the first of his movies that have left me unsatisfied. I won't blame him for that, but his star power alone shouldn't really be drawing anybody to anything. He clearly will act in just about anything as long as they cut him a check.

The DVD quality is as close to VHS as DVD can be. Once again, it's an older movie, not a major studio release, so I can overlook that a little bit.

But the worst part about this movie is the extremely weak story line. In fact, that's my second source of unintended humor. Vigo shows up out of nowhere and saves some guy's life. No questions asked he's asked to join their clique. He's meeting with his agency bosses on a regular basis. Don't these guys do surveillance of any kind? He is just handed a beautiful Japanese girl, you know to fulfill the silly fantasies of too many men out there. And then out of nowhere, they ask him to be Yakuza.

What??? I've earned boy scout badges that took longer than that. This is just not believable to me. Who gets invited into a crime family after working with them for a few weeks?

As for special features, don't even ask. This disk is clearly a budget transfer made before special features were demanded by consumers. Yep, this is a budget disk all the way.

This is a guilty pleasure movie for me, if only because it's so bad that it has me in stitches. Still, it's mind-blowing to me to read so many high praises. I can not even speculate why I experienced none of the pleasure others have noted here. It makes me wonder if somehow they included a rough draft disk in my DVD case instead of the final copy.

I bought this on sale for $5. I have no idea how the price could have gone up to $10, but if I could get back the $5 I paid I wouldn't blink an eye. So don't pay more than that.

If you love to watch really bad cliche B-movies, or you really are a Vigo Mortensen fan, you will probably enjoy this. If you are expecting a Japanese "Donnie Brasco," prepare to be seeking a refund.

Enjoy.

Clearly a 'B' movie, but a good 'B' movie. A few characters may have gone over the top at times, but Viggo came out shining. The bond that grew between Nick and Shu was heartwarming. I would have liked to see the relationship develop more, perhaps replacing the weak and thankfully brief love angle, but overall I thoroughly enjoy this movie. I believe any admirer of Viggo Mortensen's work should add this one to their collection.