Black Rain may not be one of the best films I've seen from director Ridley Scott or from Michael Douglas. Despite all the work to make it a darker effort than one might see, and more exotic with the Japanese locales, there's still the good-ol' American style to the story of "I always get my man", and it's the main thing that keeps it into the conventional and even 'safe' territory. But where it strikes its best ground, and stays fresh outside of its 80's period (and at this point it's a period piece thanks to the drastic drop in crime in NYC, if not in how the yakuza works in Japan), is in its focus as a character study, as opposed to the action which is more or less to be expected (there's even a ritualistic beheading of a character, of whom I won't reveal).
For Michael Douglas this was an attempt to deepened his persona as a star from what his two huge hits had been two years before (Wall Street and Fatal Attraction). Here he's not in a 'gray' area as a character, he's a fallen soul who curses like a sailor, is even more of a hard-ass than Harry Callahan, and will go to any length to get his man as it continues to go against the Japanese police force. It's a good character for him to play, and he has good back up with Andy Garcia as a fresh-faced young cop and Ken Takakura especially in a subtle part as the Japanese detective who's along for, whether he likes it or not, the long haul of this case against the psycho yakuza Sato (bad-ass Yukatsu Matsuda, sadly his last film). It's such a fascinating batch of characters and actors (hell, even Kate Capshaw gets her due as a noir character) that it's a shame the plot sometimes gets in the way as the yakuza prepare for a counterfeiting scam.
As luck would have it, almost in spite of the limitations of the script, Scott and DP Jan de Bont make the film cool to look at, with that touch of exotic locales and strange presences to scenes that Scott obviously loves, and with that smokey tint that was a trademark of much of the Scott brothers work (Ridley and Tony) up until the mid 90s. It's an atmospheric dip into some hard-edged pot-boiling fun and danger, just as long as you don't think too much about it amounting to a small hill of beans. 7.5/10
For Michael Douglas this was an attempt to deepened his persona as a star from what his two huge hits had been two years before (Wall Street and Fatal Attraction). Here he's not in a 'gray' area as a character, he's a fallen soul who curses like a sailor, is even more of a hard-ass than Harry Callahan, and will go to any length to get his man as it continues to go against the Japanese police force. It's a good character for him to play, and he has good back up with Andy Garcia as a fresh-faced young cop and Ken Takakura especially in a subtle part as the Japanese detective who's along for, whether he likes it or not, the long haul of this case against the psycho yakuza Sato (bad-ass Yukatsu Matsuda, sadly his last film). It's such a fascinating batch of characters and actors (hell, even Kate Capshaw gets her due as a noir character) that it's a shame the plot sometimes gets in the way as the yakuza prepare for a counterfeiting scam.
As luck would have it, almost in spite of the limitations of the script, Scott and DP Jan de Bont make the film cool to look at, with that touch of exotic locales and strange presences to scenes that Scott obviously loves, and with that smokey tint that was a trademark of much of the Scott brothers work (Ridley and Tony) up until the mid 90s. It's an atmospheric dip into some hard-edged pot-boiling fun and danger, just as long as you don't think too much about it amounting to a small hill of beans. 7.5/10