Black Rain (1989)

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. In Japan, ... See full summary »

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Craig Bolotin, Warren Lewis

Stars:

Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Douglas	...	Nick Conklin
Andy Garcia	...	Charlie Vincent
Ken Takakura	...	Masahiro
Kate Capshaw	...	Joyce
Yûsaku Matsuda	...	Sato
Shigeru Kôyama	...	Ohashi (as Shigeru Koyama)
John Spencer	...	Oliver
Guts Ishimatsu	...	Katayama
Yûya Uchida	...	Nashida
Tomisaburô Wakayama	...	Sugai
Miyuki Ono	...	Miyuki
Luis Guzmán	...	Frankie (as Luis Guzman)
John Costelloe	...	The Kid (as John A. Costelloe)
Stephen Root	...	Berg
Richard Riehle	...	Crown

Storyline

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. In Japan, however, he manages to escape. 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.

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Plot Keywords:

japan | mafia | gang war | yakuza | extradition | 

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Taglines:

A Ridley Scott Film From The Producers Of "Fatal Attraction"

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

22 September 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lluvia negra

Filming Locations:

1000 N. Crescent Drive, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$45,645,204 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Jaffe-Lansing, Pegasus Film Partners

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jackie Chan turned down a role, as he didn't want to play a "bad" character.

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Goofs

Right after the Stakeout scene, the woman is seen walking away. The scene the cuts from a fishing port in Osaka to what is suppose to be the Osaka City Center area. If you look closely at the signs in the city scene, You would be able to tell that the location was switched to Kobe.

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Quotes

Nick Conklin: A couple of guys I used to work with in the department took some money from some drug dealers. No big deal.
Matsumoto Masahiro: They stole?
Nick Conklin: They liberated funds.
Matsumoto Masahiro: Theft is theft. There is no gray area.
Nick Conklin: Hey Matsu, New York is one big gray area.

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Crazy Credits

The end credits begin with a Japanese kanji, which can be translated as "complete" or "end" and is sometimes used at the end of Japanese films.

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Connections

Featured in Black Rain: The Script, the Cast (2006)

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Soundtracks

"THE WAY YOU DO THE THINGS YOU DO"
By Bobby Rogers (as Robert Rogers) and Smokey Robinson (as William Robinson)
Performed by UB40
Produced by UB40
Courtesy of Virgin Records, Ltd.

User Reviews

A clash-of-cultures story.

Ridley Scott tends to give his films a very potent visual energy (see "Alien" and "Blade Runner" for further evidence), and here he takes a story that's been around since films began and dresses it up with his customary pictorial trimmings. Black Rain is another fish-out-of-water yarn in which a cop leaves his usual patch to track down a criminal in an unfamiliar place (see also Brannigan, French Connection II, No Mercy, Beverly Hills Cop, etc. for other versions of what is virtually the same story). The unoriginality of it all is a bit disappointing in all honesty, but Black Rain compensates for its over-familiarity by excelling in other areas.

Reckless New York cop Nick Conklin (Michael Douglas - looking more like his father Kirk than ever) and his partner Charlie Vincent (Andy Garcia) catch a Japanese gangster named Sato (Yasuka Matsuda) in their city. They are assigned to escort Sato back to Japan and hand him over to the Japanese police. However, almost immediately upon their arrival Sato escapes with the aid of some of his underworld friends, cunningly disguised as cops. Nick and Charlie are left with egg on their face, and endeavour to help the Japanese police to recapture their man. They join Japanese cop Masahiro (Ken Takakura), but police methods in Japan prove very different to what the Americans are accustomed to, and soon differences in approach boil over into frustration and violence.

Scott paints the night-time streets of Osaka as some kind of neon-lit, nightmarish maze. It becomes easy to relate to Nick and Charlie's bewilderment, and the viewer is left glad NOT to be sharing their experiences in the seedy, dangerous environment of this seemingly hostile city. There are some attempts to explore the different codes of honour by which the American and Japanese law enforcers measure their success. Also, the film establishes and sustains an edgy atmosphere (one scene, in which a key character is lured into a trap and beheaded, is especially tense).

Black Rain is a mix of effective and not-so-effective elements. The visuals, the atmosphere and the cultural alienation of the main character are very interesting, while the plotting and dialogue are disappointingly familiar. It's definitely a film worth catching, though it probably won't be remembered as fondly fifty years from now as some of the director's other films.