So begins the Ridley Scott week.
Who is Ridley Scott you may ask? From TV directing, movie director
and production he has been in TV and Movie since 1967 from the ground up and
into main feature length films. So kick your shoes off and sit a spell. This is Black Rain.
Spoilers
are everywhere!!!
Diving into a thriller starring Michael Douglas (The Chyna Syndrome, Running,
Romancing the Stone, Falling Down, Basic Instinct, The Game and Wonder Boys)
as Nick Conklin, a hardnosed, rough and tumble cop that breaks the rules to get
the job done. He and his partner Charlie
Vincent (Andy Garcia of The Untouchables, The Godfather: Part III, When a Man
Loves a Woman, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, Desperate Measures and
Ocean’s Eleven) are under investigation by Internal Affairs based on
theft charges occurring in their department when they witness a high ranking
Yakuza get blown away by Sato (Yusaku Matsuda of The Detective Story, Home
Sweet Home, And Then and The Rage of Love) and Conklin busts him.
This little feather under his cap
allows Nick and Charlie to travel to Japan to extradite to their authorities
only to be jumped by Sato’s men and freeing their leader. Given the less than stellar standing on
handling of prisoner transfer, the Japanese police department allows Conklin
and Vincent to stay in Japan and assist finding Sato but they are not allowed
to carry their sidearms and they get a chaperone with Masahiro (Ken
Takakura of The Yellow Handkerchief, Never Give Up, Station, Antarctica and
Yasha) a by the book, dots every I and crosses every T cop and the
animosity ensues. Charlie has to be a
buffer between Conklin and Masahiro to calm the waters.
Delving into the underground our
heroes find out that Sato should end up taking over the main Yakuza families
due to flooding the market with counterfeit his own money. The main appeal to this film is the clash
between cultures from anything of on the fallout of WWII to how Masahiro and
Conklin view each others’ level perceived decadence. Honor of course has a great precedence in the
movie representing Japanese culture and the title itself is described survivors
in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki .
The film is clearly Scott due to lots of smoke filled rooms, men roaming
around in trenchcoats, scenes feeling very claustrophobic streetscapes, lots of
steam rising from the streets for reason and of course neon lights.
The karaoke scene with Mas and
Charlie is actually amusing and apt and didn’t feel inappropriate. This film got a lax standing on from the
audience, there was not a lot of love for this movie and I felt it got past
over. Far too many sub-characters and
incoherent subplots like the nightclub owner Joyce (Kate Capshaw of Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom, SpaceCamp and Just Cause) as the love interest of
Douglas’s Conklin. I personally do not
view this as Scott’s best work but I truly believe this is worthy to but put up
with the likes of 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, The Hidden with a dash of The Lost
Boy Scout. This is a worthwhile film,
folks. Give it the once over.
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