Black Rain fell near the tail end of the ‘neon noir’ style that Ridley Scott himself helped kick off with Blade Runner. By ’89, films like Angel Heart and Manhunter had codified the aesthetic with a smooth blend of sultry nights, wet streets, industrial lighting, dry ice and a cool new wave sensibility that always hits me where I live.
Here, Michael Douglas plays a mulleted corrupt-ish New York cop hauling a yakuza prisoner back to Osaka, where he promptly loses him and has to navigate a system that doesn’t bend to his brand of tough-guy douchey swagger. Ken Takakura, as the local detective assigned to him, gets the thankless job of representing an entire culture.
The film works best as a mood piece and Hans Zimmer’s excellent score perfectly zeros-into that same cold noir frequency.
The movie isn’t trying to say much in terms of the culture-clash happening at the time, but as an example of a director returning to a visual language he helped pioneer, and it’s absolutely worth the trip. Scott could do this in his sleep. -Pop
Black Rain was extradited to Home Video today in 1990, after a September 22nd, 1989 theatrical release.