Black Rain Movie Review

Black Rain (1989)

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Written by: Craig Bolotin & Warren Lewis
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura, Yūsaku Matsuda, Kate Capshaw, John Spencer, Luis Guzmán, Stephen Root
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Two NYC cops arrest a Yakuza member and must escort him when he's extradited to Japan.

Verdict
This isn't much more than a cowboy cop on a manhunt. The unique aspect of this is that the chase leads him to Japan, but the country isn't integral to the story. The cops could go to any country and it wouldn't change the story. I wish the portrayal of Japan and the Japanese cops wasn't so boring, or that it seemed to matter in any way.
Skip it.

Review
This opens with '80s cool. Michael Douglas is riding a motorcycle in a leather jacket with no helmet to show off that cool mullet. It's an easy shortcut to communicate that Nick Conklin is the bad boy cop as he's being investigated by Internal Affairs. Also, how many times has Michael Douglas played a cop?

Andy Garcia plays Charlie, Nick's partner. Charlie is fashion savvy, but it's almost comical how pointedly the movie communicates this. He might as well look at the camera and state how much he likes fashion. That's his only defining characteristic.

Andy Garcia, Yūsaku Matsuda, Michael Douglas play Charlie, Sato, Nick

Nick and Charlie end up at the right place and the right time, witnessing a crime committed by a member of the Yakuza, Sato (Yūsaku Matsuda).

Cop movies often are set in New York often to a fault, but in this case it makes sense it would be New York with the international aspect of the plot. The cops end up in Japan to escort Sato back, and it just seems rather bold to be visitors in this country and want to take part in the investigation. It's not like they can add much. I really wish the movie did more to develop the Japanese detectives past a job devoted cop that doesn't have fun. I wish the movie looked at how a group of people with the same job in different cultures could learn from each other.

Michael Douglas plays Nick Conklin

This movie is too by the numbers despite the potential. It becomes a rather standard cop movie when it could have had the American cops explore Japan with the aid of the local detective while also comparing the cultural differences in how they approach an investigation. None of that nuance is here. Nick becomes an action hero calling the shots in a foreign country. The local detectives would have more authority. It's silly how the only man that can solve the case is this guy from America.

I really wanted something like Tokyo Vice where the culture and differences are explored. That series felt like someone that genuinely understood the culture was involved. In this movie Japan feels like a prop and not integral to the narrative. I would guess they chose Japan just to include the Yakuza, and I don't think this movie really understands how that organization works.