Black Rain (1989 American film)
Black Rain is a 1989 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Michael Douglas, Andy García, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yūsaku Matsuda and Tomisaburo Wakayama.[3] The film focuses on two NYPD detectives who arrest a member of the yakuza and must escort him back to Japan. Once there, he escapes, and the two officers find themselves dragged deeper and deeper into the Japanese underworld.
For the Japanese film, see Black Rain (1989 Japanese film).Additional cast members include Ken Kensei as Matsumoto's son, Vondie Curtis-Hall as an NYPD detective, Josip Elic as Joe the bartender, Keone Young as a karaoke singer, Shôtarô Hayashi; Toshishiro Obata and Takayuki Kubota as yakuza mediators, Shiro Oishi; Roy K. Ogata; Nathan Jung; Al Leong, Mak Takano and Bruce Locke as Sato's henchmen, and Professor Toru Tanaka and Jôji Shimaki as Sugai's henchmen. Musician David Tao appears uncredited as an extra, playing an Osaka police officer.
Black Rain marked the first collaboration between Hans Zimmer and Ridley Scott. Zimmer would go on to score several more films for Scott, including Thelma and Louise, Hannibal, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Matchstick Men. The film's score was conducted and orchestrated by Shirley Walker.
In addition to the score, the soundtrack features the chart hits "The Way You Do the Things You Do" by UB40 and "Back to Life" by Soul II Soul, plus the original songs "Livin' on the Edge of the Night" by Iggy Pop and "I'll Be Holding On" by Gregg Allman. Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto contributed the song "Laserman" to the soundtrack.[13][14]
The soundtrack was originally released as a 7-track album in 1989 by Virgin Movie Music on cassette, vinyl and compact disc. It was re-released in 2012 by La-La Land Records as a two-disc set, with the complete score as Disc 1 and an extended version of the 1989 soundtrack as Disc 2.[13][15][14]
Black Rain: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Black Rain: Music from the Motion Picture
Songs not included in the soundtrack, but featured in the film include the following:
Release[edit]
Black Rain was released in the United States on September 22, 1989. It was screened as the opening film at the 3rd Tokyo International Film Festival in October 1989 and shown as the Special Invitational Screening film, with Ken Takakura attending the event.[16] It was later screened at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei, where it won Best Foreign Film.[17]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
In its opening weekend, Black Rain grossed US$9.6 million in 1,610 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office and staying there for two weeks.[18][2] At the Japanese box office, Black Rain was the fifth top-grossing foreign film of 1989, earning ¥1.35 billion in distributor rentals.[19] The film grossed a total of US$46.2 million in the United States and Canada, and US$88 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of US$134.2 million.[2]
Critical response[edit]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "plays as if it had been written in the course of production. There seems to have been more desperation off the screen than ever gets into the movie. As bad movies go, however, the American 'Black Rain' is easy to sit through, mostly because of the way Mr. Scott and his production associates capture the singular look of contemporary urban Japan."[20] Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and stated, "Even given all of its inconsistencies, implausibilities and recycled cliches, Black Rain might have been entertaining if the filmmakers had found the right note for the material. But this is a designer movie, all look and no heart, and the Douglas character is curiously unsympathetic."[21] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the same two-star grade and wrote, "The crosscultural action picture might have worked if the filmmakers had come up with a script in which Douglas' character had been rendered weak and confused by being a fish trying to swim in strange waters. But instead he is presented as a traditional action hero dominating everyone in sight. The cultural imperialism of that decision makes for a routine and frequently offensive story full of Asian stereotypes."[22]
A review in Variety stated, "Since this is a Ridley Scott film, 'Black Rain' is about 90% atmosphere and 10% story. But what atmosphere! This gripping crime thriller about hardboiled N.Y. cop Michael Douglas tracking a yakuza hood in Osaka, Japan, boasts magnificent lensing by Jan DeBont and powerfully baroque production design by Norris Spencer."[23] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times described the plot as "standard '80s schtick" but called the visuals "hellaciously gorgeous" and concluded that "action movies are one genre where clichés can be transcended and execution can triumph over content. That's what happens here."[24] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote that Scott "approaches this prickly action thriller with the gusto of a sushi chef in a fish storm. Unfortunately and typically, he loses sight of his story in this artistic barrage of blood and guts. It's a gorgeous, erratic movie most definitely not for those with an aversion to cutlery."[25]
The film holds a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 24 reviews with the consensus: "Black Rain has its fair share of Ridley Scott's directorial flair, but its paint-by-numbers story never rises above genre conventions."[26] On Metacritic, it has a score of 56% based on reviews from 18 critics.[27]
In retrospect, Michael Douglas said: "It was hard to know who to root for. And people here were uncomfortable with race stuff and talking about the bomb. There was a critic, who'll remain nameless, who called it a racist film. I called him up and asked, 'Have you ever been to Japan?' He said, 'No', and I said, 'Then what the hell are you talking about?' The Japanese loved it. I loved it—I thought it rocked from top to bottom."
During an interview on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron in November 2021, Scott called the film "f*cking great".[28]