Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.
Michael Douglas
Nick Conklin
Andy García
Charlie Vincent
Ken Takakura
Masahiro
Kate Capshaw
Joyce
Yūsaku Matsuda
Sato
Shigeru Kōyama
Ohashi
John Spencer
Oliver
Yuya Uchida
Nashida
Guts Ishimatsu
Katayama
Tomisaburō Wakayama
Sugai
Miyuki Ono
Miyuki
Luis Guzmán
Frankie
John Costelloe
The Kid
Stephen Root
Berg
Richard Riehle
Crown
Bruce Katzman
Yudell
Tim Kelleher
Bobby
Edmund Ikeda
Japanese Businessman
Tomo Nagasue
Japanese Translator
Clem Caserta
Abolofia
George Kyle
Farentino
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Detective
Joe Perce
Detective
Louis Cantarini
Detective
Doug Yasuda
Japanese / American Translator
Toshio Sato
Japanese Embassy Official
Jun Kunimura
Yashimoto
Roy K. Ogata
Sato's Man
Shirô Oishi
Sato's Man
Professor Toru Tanaka
Sugai's Man
Rikiya Yasuoka
Sugai's Man
Jôji Shimaki
Sugai's Man
Gorō Sasa
Ohashi's Man
Taro Ibuki
Ohashi's Man
Daisuke Awaji
Ohashi's Man
Keone Young
Karaoke Singer
Jim Ishida
Escort Officer
Shōtarō Hayashi
Mediator
Toshishiro Obata
Mediator
Michiko Tsujima
Noodle Woman
Linda Gillen
Peggy
John Gotay
Danny
Matthew Porac
Patrick
Ken Kensei
Masahiro's Son
Josip Elic
Joe, the Bartender
Mitchell Bahr
Friend
Ken Enomoto
Detective
Nathan Jung
Sato's Yakuza Enforcer
Al Leong
Sato's Yakuza Assassin
Bruce Locke
Sato's Man
Chris Nelson Norris
Motorcyclist
Dennis Y. Takeda
Newspaper Reporter
Celia Xavier
Nori, Bar Hostess
Director
Ridley Scott
Screenplay
Warren Lewis
Screenplay
Craig Bolotin
July 8, 2019
8
If you pull it-you better use it.
Black Rain is directed by Ridley Scott and written by Craig Bolotin and Warren Lewis. It stars Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yusaku Matsuda and Tomisaburo Wakayama. Music is by Hans Zimmer and cinematography by Jan de Bont.
After New York cops Nick Conklin (Douglas) and Charlie Vincent (Garcia) arrest a sword wielding psychopath named Sato Koji (Matsuda), they are tasked with escorting him back to Osaka in Japan. From here they are plunged into a war that is brewing in the Japanese underworld.
You see there's a war going on here and they don't take no prisoners.
Welcome to Blade Runner's younger brother, Black Rain, a Ridley Scott film I feel has never received the credit it deserves. Viewing from the outside it looked like one of those 1980s cop movies, one where the main cop is washed up and perched on the edge of oblivion, his partner his sanity and voice of reason. However, Scott (brought in late to direct when Paul Verhoeven bailed) wasn't interested in the normalities of the cop drama, he saw the potential for cross continent culture clash and the chance to bring his visual skills to the fore.
Yep, it's the big neon glitter of Osaka and the grime and dime of New York that is the big draw here, but characterisations are still rich for the drama, with Scott taking plenty of time to set up the lead protagonist. We know Conklin's troubles, we know how tight his friendship is with Charlie, and by the time things go grim and dour in Osaka we understand just why Conklin plunges head first into a do or die situation.
Visually Scott infuses the picture with cramped locales, steamy streets, industrial wastelands and blood red suns, while his lead character is an unshaven trench coat wearer who still manages to look devilishly cool. It's perhaps the drawing of Osaka that is the most impressive, for it's an alien creation to us as much as it obviously is to Conklin, the ignorance gap between America and Japan still wide apart in 1989.
Complaints? At just over two hours in running time the film does have periods of flatness, where some better editing wouldn't have gone amiss; though Scott's original cut was considerably longer, begging the question on if more could have been done to enhance the seething culture clash between cops Conklin and Matsumoto (Takakura)?
Another problem is that Capshaw's character is under written, a crime when it's the sole female part of note in a two hour movie. Did more of the character hit the cutting room floor? Likely, because now it's a token eye candy offering, which is a shame since what little we do get hints at a savvy performance from Capshaw.
Ridley Scott lifts Black Rain from merely being a fish out of water thriller to something more layered. True to say there is more style than substance (what style though), but there is still very much interesting juxtapositioning of countries and human interactions of credible worth as well. 8/10
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$30,000,000.00
Revenue:
$134,212,055.00