Lol, 11 years late to this thread But, yes sort of! I was wondering if anyone mentioned it on here & looks like you did! I agree it was quite disturbing, & yeah yeah - It's just a movie, it didn't really happen, there are worse scenes out there. But idk, I was sort of shocked, i think mostly because of the dialogue, & much less the violence (i know, how weird lmao), but at the same time, not really, since it was integral to the film in a way.

No, because a) it's just a bunch of actors playing dress-up-and-pretend, and b) in real life it never happened (no mention of it in Pistone''s book).

I did, but I found the scene more laughable than disturbing. I found it funny that all the guy wanted is that Donnie gets his shoes off, and those guys beat him up for that.

I've seen Donnie Brasco probably 10 times and the scene where they bash the Japanese guy in the tiolet of the Japanese restaurant never gets any easier for me. Everytime I mention this to others who have seen this film, I get the impression that nobody else is as affected by the scene as me. Anyone else find that scene DEEPLY disturbing?
I agree with you. More than any other scene in this genre I think that this gives a good demonstration of what brutally violent bullies these people actually are. What they did was savagely beat someone because he insisted that they honor the rules of the establishment. So far as we know this man had no connection whatsoever to the mob or any other criminal activityhe just made the mistake of insisting that this bunch of thugs respect his right to run his business the way that he choses.

I enjoyed that scene.

italians in a oriental restaurant ????????/

No, not really. It's brutal but kind of humorous. Your watching a film about mobsters what do you expect. Worse happens every day in real life.

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yeah. i found it disturbing. and it was supposed to be.
not sure if people understand how fragile the human body is. assaults like that could be deadly. or crippling.

I really enjoyed that scene, it was great! The Japanese guy will now learn when to keep his mouth shut.
Nice night for a walk

Look, because of the Japs, Donnie had to grow up in a fuxxxckin orphanage. The Americans won the war that the Japs started. Why should Donnie or anyone else have to take of his or her shoes if they don't want to?
This scene reminded me of the somewhat similar scene involving an uppity Korean storekeeper in "Falling Down." Do you know how much money our country has given to these Asian countries?
The Jap in "Donnie Brasco" should have backed off. The customer is always right. And, as Donnie said, we won the war. And the U.S. has given the Japs a lot of money.

No, I thought it was beautiful.

Don't forget, "wise guys" are just street thugs dressed in nice clothes. They have about as much class as an axe murderer.
Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.

Disturbed? No. I didn't buy it. I figure wiseguys have, or at least pretend to have, more class than that and, although they're capable of horrific things when necessary, wouldn't go to that extent to prove a point and defend the pride of an associate they've only known for a relatively short time. Seems to me in reality they'd sooner use force against Donnie for being petulant and embarrassing them in public than cause a scene with the innocent waiter in his place of business, which is generally bad manners and not worth their time.

I'm really surprised by this reaction! I really didn't see anything that bad- other than the fact they were beating an innocent guy up lol
Do guys like "the thing"?
They like it better than no thing.

Yes the beating dished out to Donnie would get pretty ugly indeed. But what about the ethics of a copper laying the boot into an innocent citizen?

what happened to the waiter is a hug compared to what they'd do to Donnie if they saw the tape recorder
the poor guy didn't deserve the bashing and Donnie putting the boot in.

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One uncle got depressed and drank himself do death. The other one wrecked his back on the bike, got a fat pay-out and is spending the rest of his miserable life as best he can. My cousin has crawled his way up to be area superintendent and is getting ready to retire on a fat pension.
I applied to be a security guard too but those jobs only go to the new immigrants. I suspect they look after their own kind. Society is just like the climate, it gets worse every day.
Perhaps I should set up some sort of covert surveillance service with maybe a bit of follow on work to take care of things for jilted clients. Sort of like Private Detective Visser in [/]Blood Simple. I was looking for someone to move into the spare room and help pay the rent. A sleazy character rang but didn't follow through. I rang his number and his wife picked up the phone. She proceeded to tell me all the gory details and then suspected that I was a buddy of her sleazy husband and just trying to wind her up. I convinced her that I wasn't. She then asked if I would get some photos of her husband as evidence for a divorce. I turned her down but later regretted doing so. It all seemed like an old film noir flick.
I tell you, if it wasn't for films I think I would turn into a mad axe wielding homicidal maniac.

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Crims and coppers are just alike. They're both scraped off the bottom the barrel. They're like bitter and twisted mongrel dogs. Never turn your back on 'em.
I know a few coppers. One uncle was a sergeant, another was a motorcycle copper. A cousin is a detective last I heard.
I'm the white sheep in my family. I applied to be a copper but was deemed unable to cope with all the stress and violence. Then I applied to be a police radio operator. Got to the interview and when they asked me why I applied I said it was to just get a job. BZZZZ wrong answer - NEXT!
I suppose I'll just have to become a crim. I have to do something to feed myself don't I?
Getting back to the topic, it really got to Donnie Braso didn't it. His missus picked it up. He picked it up. It just spirals down and down. Look at
Serpico
and
Romeo is Bleeding
.

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I saw
The Sopranos
and generally didn't mind it because of the main thrust of the story being a gangster having panic attacks. It was sort of like a blend of
Analyse This
and
The Godfather
.
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I can't recall any scene in
The Sopranos
involving an undercover police officer being the cause of a brutal beating of an innocent citizen and then putting the boot in. That's what shocked me.
I suppose I would have done the same thing, except for the booting. He wasn't to know how it would end up. In the long run it proved worthwhile. It was just a bit of collateral damage.

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