MovieChat Forums > Brother (2000) Discussion > The Ending.... (Spoilers Obviously!)

The Ending.... (Spoilers Obviously!)


I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, it wasn't quite as dark or as different as Sonatine or Boiling Point but that was to be expected.

Did anyone else think that the last scene with Denny finding the money in the bag and saying "Sh*t" a hundred times wasn't needed?

I thought the image of Aniki laying outside the diner and the mafia motorcade driving off would have been a better way to finish the story. I mean it was obvious that Denny was going to discover the money and that he would be chased wherever he went.

I felt it was just a little bit out of place after such a great story. Maybe I'm alone in this! :)

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I agree with you. Omar Epps is an excellent actor, but his emotion at the end didn't seem too convincing,like he was trying too hard. I really enjoyed the performance by the actor who played Shirase, though. I kind of wished he would've gone out more in a blaze of glory instead of the car bomb.

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I agree that he was great in his role, really gave the impression of a cocky American Yakuza boss that had no real worries until Aniki showed up, then he got power crazy! :)

I thought the sudden death with the car bomb had a definite Kitano pace to it, straight after the severed head, totally unexpected and abrupt!

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I liked Shirase more then any other character in this movie. He was interesting. I knew that he was going to die because they always kill my favorite character. I was surprised that a car bomb killed him because he seemed like a smart cookie, and it was such....well, I would have thought he would have had the foresight to check out his car. Still liked the movie, though I must have seen the cut version (It kept on jumping around oddly in a scene).

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Those who complain that Hispanics,Italian Americans or Blacks were not accurately portrayed in this movie should realized that it was never Kitanos intention to portray them as they are.Perhaps this is Kitanos most sentimental film,a movie about family,hence the title.Denny earned Kitanos respect and affection by being loyal and stoic to Yamamoto,like a Japanese if you will,something his own brother couldnt manage to do.As for the ending,for Kitano viewers ,it comes as a surprise because again it is somewhat of a sentimental ending and less apocalyptical than his usual films except for of course..Getting Any!

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I thought the scene at the end was Omar Epps finest moment, the expletives were but verses in the harmony of his confusion and added to the intense feelings they were trying to convey. I know it moved me to be sure, that scene always gets me in the center of my heart...

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I'm not so sure, Omar seems like he is babbling at the end. I'm just not very convinced by his performance in the end. He is a talented actor but it didn't really show. It didn't seem like he really cared.

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The End Omar Epps scene didn't work for me either and I agree that the film might've been better left with pull back from Kitano's body at the diner. Although overall I thought Brother was yet another absoutly jaw dropping great film by Kitano.

I've thought about it, and I think maybe what happend was that what Kitano wrote for that last scene with Omar Epps probably lost something in the translation. As little as I personally understand about Asian Culture especially the often "Inscrutable Japanese", I think that when Kitano directed that last Omar Epps scene he might not have realized it would look foolish to most American's. English, American speech patterns, and ebonics might even seem as exotic and interesting to Japanese ears as the Japanese and other Asian languages sound to our own. So it's possible that Kitano just didn't realize that in that last scene Omar Epps wasn't coming off as very realistic or even using the type of speech pattern that usually coincides with the way Kitano most often ends his films. The big thing for me was, since Kitano's films, (including "Brother" if it would have ended with the last diner scene shot), end on a very softspoken, serene, and thoughtful note the addition of Omar Epps cussing like a sailor, using ebonics speech patterns, and not really even seeming realistic, seemed jarringly like "Not Kitano".

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I had the benefit of watching this movie at a film festival with an introduction that told me that this was a movie about World War II (see my comments at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0222851/usercomments-3). With that in mind, to me, the whole movie made sense and the ending to this movie was almost perfect. It's one of my favourites. Think of Omar Epps' closing scene as the post-war state of the western world's relationship with Japan and why.

The only thing I would have changed was the last scene of the bullet-riddled body of Aniki outside the diner. Instead of his body lying there, I wish Kitano just left a silhouette of blood on the ground or wall. There was no doubt that he was nuked!

I'm looking forward to seeing Zatoichi next month at the same film festival (Vancouver Int'l). Kitano's been winning awards in Venice and Toronto with this one over the past couple of months.

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you've peaked my curiousity with the comparison to WW2. could you elaborate more on the connection? and i'm interested to know how does the ending fit as the post-war state relationship with Japan?

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There really was no good guy in this movie and I didn't see anything that was trying to show that the character Aniki was a good guy. Because he's not. So when he dies your not suppose to feel sorry for him. I'm glad that they weren't trying to make a killer into some kind of a good guy.

Because gangsters are NOT good guys!!!!!!

And why the f*** are you comparing Aniki's character to Jet Li's(Can't rememeber his character's name)character from Romeo Must Die????? The characters don't have that much in common at all.

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I don't see how or why anybody would feel sorry for a gangster. Someone who would kill you for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone who would and could kill you just for getting them mad or saying the wrong thing to them. Someone who gets the cops, a judge or jury corrupt and to to look the other way. Someone who sales drugs or weapons to people. Someone who will beat you to death with who knows what because you know something. Someone who could get someone to even kill you in prison.

The Mafia are the scums of the motherf***ing earth and should be killed.


And just because I say a cuss word doesn't mean I want to brawl with you or with anybody. Also, it seems like you where looking for some type of good guy in this movie and there wasn't. In all the Mafia and gangters movies I've watched I was glad to see some of them get killed.

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Don't know what a VampireWarith is do you?

I can tell you it's not Dracula.

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Take a pill or a timeout man.

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I thought the last scene was appropriate and emotive. It showed Denny and Aniki's connection; it was like you were really shown what you should have been able to take in all along - the intensity of the relationship between the two characters, the respect for one another, the type of relationship where one guy would allow himself to be killed so his friend could survive. This for me is a large factor in why Kitano's films are so good; they show so much about human relationships and humanity in general with so little dialogue, and usually you only feel the full force of the film when it finishes (as emphasised in Brother with that amazing hard cut to black and silence).

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I still think your an idiot for thinking that Kitano's character was too much of a mien bad guy and not likable.......God that sounds so f***ing stupid. It sounds stupid even typing it.

Anyway.....

You have to agree with Danny at the end. Where the f*** is he suppose to run away too? How much money did Aniki give him? And how much would that last him?

This is not one Kitano's best film but it's a very, very good gangster movie. It's about time the Japanese Mafia was protrayed right.

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its one of my favorite maffia movies and probebly my favorite kitano movie

"Its Hard to Fly with The Eagles When Your Surounded By Turkeys"
- "Stephen Root" - "Newsradio"

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There needs to be more movies about the Japanese Yakuza. There's too many Mafia movies about the Italians.

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are you all stoned? the bit with omar epps at the end is crucial! it displays why the film is named as it is. brother isnt relating to the fact kitano meets up with his brother, or the fact that there are 'sworn; brothers, which counts for dick in most places. granted one of kitanos sworn brothers in japan is supposed to kill him and lets him free but in most cases all signs of 'brotherhood' is purely based on convenience for instance shirase becoming kitanos sworn brother, or inconvenience ie aniki turning up on kens doorway. ken was anikis brother, which suggests the title but remember how he greeted him when he turned up? effectively 'oh hi, this is my brother i havnt seen for years even though he paid for me to come to a better life in america even though i fvcked it up and push drugs, anyway, gotta go bro'. yeah, real brotherhood.

the brother of the title is denny. denny and aniki have a real friendship/brotherhood going on, they play games together, talk all the time, respect each other massively where as ken sees signs of sh!t going down and legs it. denny is anikis brother and therefore the ending is required to see the extent of love for a brother even in such a cold and brutal man as aniki. (aswel as being a wonderfully moving scene!)

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Very, very well said Dextor fenster.

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why thank you!!

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I thought when Aniki kills Ken (who was maybe a disgraced Yakuza brother?) and says to Epps "You know why I did it?" and Epps replies "Yes.", that shows how they were brothers more than any other scene. Epps, even though he is an outsider, understands honor, and didn't run, but stayed with Aniki until the end.

I thought the last scene kind of stuck out as well, but I thought it was useful for both showing the note and the fact that Epps seems to believe that he is still on the run. It did seem kind of thrown in though, maybe it was shot after test screenings where audience members were confused? A couple of people I was watching it with forgot that the bag had money in it.

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Aniki didn't kill Ken.
What makes you think that happened?
Aniki calls Ken on the cellphone from the diner and then realizes Ken is dead.

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"the brother of the title is denny. denny and aniki have a real friendship/brotherhood going on, they play games together, talk all the time, respect each other massively where as ken sees signs of sh!t going down and legs it. denny is anikis brother and therefore the ending is required to see the extent of love for a brother even in such a cold and brutal man as aniki. (aswel as being a wonderfully moving scene!)"

I agree. The title is a play on words of sorts. Denny's hysteria is not something you see in gangster movies. Kitano observes insecurity within a very masculine setting.

I remember when two other black men try to join the gang. One is a braggart, and the other is very shy. The gang kills the braggart in front of the shy man, and the shy man is invited to join. Later, in a shootout, the shy man is killed while still in the middle of the back seat of a car. Kitano lingers for a long time on the man's face.

This film is very similar to Sonatine in its study of male insecurity and male emotions.

I really liked Aniki's confession in the movie, which was all the more moving because it was so brief, and because there was still a strong language barrier between the two.
Aniki: "Denny, I did it."
Denny: "I know, man!"

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