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Black Rain
From the producers of Fatal Attraction and the director of Gladiator, 1989's Black Rain is a by-the-numbers mob thriller that attempts originality by being set on foreign soil, unfortunately, the setting works against the film as much as it works for it.
The film stars Michael Douglas as Detective Nick Conklin, another movie cop fresh off an internal affairs investigation who is at a bar one night with his partner, Charlie Vincent, played by Andy Garcia, where they witness a meeting between New York mobsters and members of the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia), which results in two people being murdered in cold blood in front of dozens of witnesses. Conklin and Vincent nab the guy who did it who has been ordered back to Japan and our boys are assigned to accompany the guy. Upon arrival in Tokyo, a group of men claiming to be Japanese police take the prisoner off their hands, but it turns out they were imposters and dogged by a stuffed-shirt Japanese detective (Ken Takamura), Conklin and Vincent find themselves waist deep in the Yakuza and an elaborate counterfeiting operation.
Director Ridley Scott is to be applauded for the look of this film, which is dark and haunting, thanks to superb production values, but his work is overshadowed by a long-winded and often incomprehensible screenplay by Craig Bolitin and Warren Lewis that plunges the two main characters in the middle of a fish out of water mob story and often forgets that the story takes place in a foreign country. Approximately one third of the screenplay is not in English and there are no subtitles provided. Don't get me wrong, I hate reading at the movies and have never been keen on subtitles, but when most of the characters onscreen are not speaking English for the majority of the running time, attention begins to wane pretty quickly.
The film is beautifully photographed and mounted, with gorgeous Asian scenery, making Tokyo look like the most beautiful city in the world. The cinematography by future director Jan De Bont is first rate as are film editing, music, and the Oscar-nominated sound. Douglas is solid as Conklin and Andy Garcia is a lot of fun as Charlie, but the inability to understand Japanese really hindered my enjoyment of what was going on here.
From the producers of Fatal Attraction and the director of Gladiator, 1989's Black Rain is a by-the-numbers mob thriller that attempts originality by being set on foreign soil, unfortunately, the setting works against the film as much as it works for it.
The film stars Michael Douglas as Detective Nick Conklin, another movie cop fresh off an internal affairs investigation who is at a bar one night with his partner, Charlie Vincent, played by Andy Garcia, where they witness a meeting between New York mobsters and members of the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia), which results in two people being murdered in cold blood in front of dozens of witnesses. Conklin and Vincent nab the guy who did it who has been ordered back to Japan and our boys are assigned to accompany the guy. Upon arrival in Tokyo, a group of men claiming to be Japanese police take the prisoner off their hands, but it turns out they were imposters and dogged by a stuffed-shirt Japanese detective (Ken Takamura), Conklin and Vincent find themselves waist deep in the Yakuza and an elaborate counterfeiting operation.
Director Ridley Scott is to be applauded for the look of this film, which is dark and haunting, thanks to superb production values, but his work is overshadowed by a long-winded and often incomprehensible screenplay by Craig Bolitin and Warren Lewis that plunges the two main characters in the middle of a fish out of water mob story and often forgets that the story takes place in a foreign country. Approximately one third of the screenplay is not in English and there are no subtitles provided. Don't get me wrong, I hate reading at the movies and have never been keen on subtitles, but when most of the characters onscreen are not speaking English for the majority of the running time, attention begins to wane pretty quickly.
The film is beautifully photographed and mounted, with gorgeous Asian scenery, making Tokyo look like the most beautiful city in the world. The cinematography by future director Jan De Bont is first rate as are film editing, music, and the Oscar-nominated sound. Douglas is solid as Conklin and Andy Garcia is a lot of fun as Charlie, but the inability to understand Japanese really hindered my enjoyment of what was going on here.