Review: Black Rain

Michael Douglas is a sleazy-looking, hog-riding cop with an IA investigation and financial concerns at home dogging him. He and his slightly more ingratiating partner (Andy Garcia) are witness to a brutal Japanese Yakuza slaying (admittedly unconvincingly staged in broad daylight), and after a pursuit, they manage to apprehend gangster Sato (Yusaku Matsuda). They are ordered to escort him on a flight back to Japan, which of course gets botched and Matsuda manages to flee. Douglas doesn’t want to go home since his job hasn’t been properly carried out, and thus the American duo form an uneasy alliance with their more by-the-book, reserved Japanese counterparts. Chief among these is humourless Ken Takakura, who is a real swell, fun guy. Kate Capshaw turns up as an American manager of a local nightclub, whom Douglas seems to fancy (Because he’s Michael Douglas and she doesn’t have a penis).

 

Released in 1989, this crime/action flick from director Ridley Scott (“Alien”, “Blade Runner”, “Legend”, “Prometheus”) and scribes Craig Bolotin (Director of “Light it Up” and one episode of “Miami Vice”) and Warren Lewis (“The 13^th Warrior”) had passed me by all these years, but now I’ve seen it, and it’s a solid and good-looking film, one of the better films of its type. It loses a little something when Andy Garcia isn’t around (he steals his every scene), and the US-Japanese relations stuff wasn’t even new in 1989 (I did find it funny, though that Douglas demands Japanese people to speak English. In Japan. What a dickhead!), but I’ve got to admit that Scott goes a long way to making you forget that your really just watching another fish-out-of-water buddy cop film.

 

It’s a very slickly done film, whatever its flaws (Why would American cops be chosen to escort a Japanese crim back home in the first place?). Scott and his chosen cinematographers Howard Atherton (“Fatal Attraction”, “Indecent Proposal”) and Jan de Bont (who went on to direct the horribly overrated action pic “Speed” among other films) shoot this like it’s film noir, and the film is all the better for it. The mixture of darkness and neon might remind you a bit of Scott’s “Blade Runner”, but in my view this is a much better film, and Michael Douglas fares much better in a neo-noir (neon-noir?) protagonist capacity than Harrison Ford did (Not sure if he convinces as a hog-rider, though). Douglas also shares good chemistry with Kate Capshaw. I’m still not convinced that she would be known today if she didn’t marry Steven Spielberg and appear in one of the “Indiana Jones” films, but credit where it’s due, this is Capshaw’s best performance.

 

Getting back to the film’s look, Scott and Atherton (who did most of the work, but eventually was replaced by de Bont when he apparently got frustrated on set) make Japan look absolutely beautiful, if mostly dark and noirish. But when the film does go the neon route, unlike say Las Vegas, the neon lights and glitter don’t look like putting lipstick on a pig (though it is still depicted as a crime-ridden place, don’t get me wrong). It’s genuinely beautiful to look at. I think we got one too many breaking dawn shots, though. In that sense it looked more Tony Scott than Ridley to me (And indeed it does look at times like it could’ve been a Tony Scott film too, even though usually the brothers’ filmic styles are pretty different). It’s kind of like noir meets “Miami Vice” in Japan, with a real Jan Hammer special from composer Hans Zimmer (“Gladiator”, “Black Hawk Down”, “Inception”), probably the film’s biggest drawback. Seriously, it’s an awful, awful score.

 

The hog-riding Japanese gangsters were a tad silly, but lead villain Yusaku Matsuda is genuinely good in his last film role. Sadly, he knew he was dying during filming, and passed away from bladder cancer not long after the film’s American release. Look for small roles by veteran action movie Asian bad guys Prof. Toru Tanaka (in barely a walk-on) and Toshishiro Obata. They’re always fun to spot, as is actor/stuntman Al Leong (who normally plays Chinese or Vietnamese characters), credited here only as a stuntman even though he is quite clearly seen on screen. His long hair and Fu Manchu beard are unmistakable.

 

But for me, this is Andy Garcia’s film to steal, and he looks like he’s having a whale of a time doing it, especially in the scenes where he has to translate all of Douglas’ insults to the polite, if humourless Japanese cops. I can’t tell if he’s acting, having fun, or is completely buzzed, but the scene where Garcia sings ‘Tell Me What I Say’ is pretty damn funny (and apparently Garcia’s idea).

 

This isn’t anything great, and at times it gives off a distinct 80s vibe (which may or may not be a problem for you), but it still holds up better than other films of its type like “Year of the Dragon” or “Rising Sun”. I’m glad I finally got around to seeing this one.

 

Rating: B-