7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.7 |
When a yakuza hit man named Sato is arrested in New York, he's extradited to Osaka to face trial, with NYPD detectives Nick Conklin and Charlie Vincent as his escorts. When Sato escapes upon arrival in Osaka, the detectives remain to hunt him down, under the supervision of "Mas" Masumoto, a by-the-book Japanese detective, who is their only guide to a culture in which the two Americans are wholly lost.
Starring: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yûsaku MatsudaCrime | 100% |
Thriller | 84% |
Drama | 11% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640 kbps)
English: DTS-ES 6.1 (24-bit, 1509 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
For most Americans in the 1980s, Japan was a total mystery. Aside from the general fear that their auto industry was steamrolling ours, from our perspective, way across the Pacific, the land of the rising sun was cloaked in a fog of cultural ignorance. And despite the newfound ubiquity of anime and Japanese videogames—not the best sources for cultural enlightenment, admittedly— things haven’t changed much in the intervening years. My wife and I were at a restaurant today and we overheard a middle-aged woman talking about her first experience with sushi. “I saw tuna roll on the menu,” she said, “and I thought it was a roll, you know, bread. When it came, the roll was seaweed.” Granted, the town where I live is no cultural epicenter, but really? I suppose I’m a bit sensitive because I recently spent two years teaching English at a high school in northern Japan. My ears perk up at the mention of anything Nippon-related, and when I first read the synopsis for Ridley Scott’s Black Rain—for years the film was remotely on my radar as one of Scott’s lesser works—I was worried that it would be a series of gross misconceptions about Japan wrapped in the conventions of a by-the-numbers buddy cop drama. I’d say I was about 55% right. As a cop movie, Black Rain is a torrential downpour of every cinematic cliché imaginable. That said, the film’s Japanese setting is certainly unique for the genre, and though the contrasting of east and west gets heavy handed at times, Black Rain is fairly objective in its treatment of both cultures.
Michael Douglas thinks that now that he's in Japan he can burn his American cash.
Don't be fooled by the grungy, fleck-filled Paramount logo at the beginning of the film—Black Rain sports a nearly immaculate 1080p/MPEG-2 transfer that does justice to the flashing lights of Osaka's nightlife. For a film that's now 20 years old, Black Rain looks great on Blu-ray. The opening scenes in New York are appropriately dingy, realistically presenting the now-defunct meatpacking district with dank grays and smoke rising up from manhole covers in smoggy clouds. When the film moves to Japan the palette opens up considerably—the nightclub is drenched in bold blues, yellow and orange tones heat up a yakuza-owned smelting factory, and neon signs of every color blink furiously, hanging over Osaka's clustered, bustling streets. While this isn't the sharpest catalog title I've seen, Black Rain never lacks for clarity, and the sheer amount of detail gives the on-location shots a distinct sense of place. Just look at the clutter of the Osaka police station—I used to work in a Japanese office and trust me, no American set dresser could ever reproduce that organized chaos. I really have few complaints. There are some overly dim scenes, one or two instances of mild contrast wavering, and a few crushed details, but other than that, Black Rain's transfer is clean, moderately sharp, and a pleasure to watch.
While there's nothing outright problematic about Black Rain's audio, it doesn't exactly impress either, as the dated source material can't keep pace with more modern mixes. The film offers a DTS-ES 6.1 surround track as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX mix, and I went with the DTS because of its higher bit-rate and more open sound. Since the film is arguably driven more by character than action, Black Rain's audio is largely placed front and center, with dialogue receiving clear priority. The surround channels play a mostly passive role here—supporting the score and delivering location-establishing ambience—and there are relatively few discrete effects. Motorcycles zip, sirens peel out loudly, and cars zoom by, but that's about it. A few of the foley effects are less-than-convincing—punches in particular are clearly canned—but other sound effects, like gunshots, are crisp and believable. Dynamically, the track has a decent enough range, but it seems to lack low-end density. And while Hans Zimmer's eastern-infused score certainly kicks it with big electronic drum hits and some raucous flute, the music is way too digitized and immediately dated.
Black Rain: The Script, The Cast (SD, 20:23 total)
Only the front end of this featurette discusses the origins of the script--which was penned by
Craig Bolotin and Warren Lewis—and the rest is devoted to an examination of the principals
actors and their characters, featuring interviews with Ridley Scott, Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia,
Kate Capshaw, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick and producers Sherry Lansing and Stanley R.
Jaffe.
Black Rain: Making the Film (SD, 37:55)
Broken into two, lopsided parts—28 minutes and 9 minutes—this comprehensive documentary
explores the pre-production process, the cinematography by director of photography Jan De Bont,
and the financial and cultural strains incurred by shooting in Japan. The bulk of the feature
definitely concerns the latter, as the production crew ran into numerous obstacles, from the
unyielding Tokyo government to the super-specific permit process and last-minute changes to
agreements that had been made months before shooting was set to commence. From the sound
of things, it seems that the producers of Black Rain had just as much of a culture clash
as Michael Douglas' character. Nearly everyone involved with the film turns up for interviews
here, and as far as "making of" documentaries go, this one's more enlightening than
most.
Black Rain: Post Production (SD, 12:25)
This addendum looks briefly at the editing process, Hans Zimmer's score (and first Scott
collaboration), and the critical reactions to the film. What I found most interesting was that Ridley
Scott's first cut ran in excess of 2 hours and 40 minutes. When he cut it down to under 2 hours,
the producers cried foul—he'd taken out most of the film's texture—and they all agreed that the
film should be "the right length," even if it meant going past the 2 hour mark. It's unfortunate
that portions of the first cut don't exist as deleted scenes here.
Commentary by Director Ridley Scott
Scott revisits the film in this track, recorded a few years ago, and though he initially seems fuzzy
about a few of the details, it all comes back to him rather quickly. Much of the material is
redundant if you've watched the four-part "making of" documentary, but Scott does go into more
detail about the film's xenophobic themes, along with the more-often-than-not frustrating ins
and outs of shooting in Japan. There's rarely a dull moment, and Scott is one director who knows
how to talk about shooting a film, elevating the humdrum details with almost philosophical
insights about filmmaking itself.
Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:24)
Though its Osaka setting is vibrant and alive, and though the film tries to explore Japanese-U.S relations at a time when they were somewhat strained, in all other respects Black Rain is nearly indistinguishable from the glut of other 1980s cop dramas. Still, fans of the genre will find a lot to love, and this Blu-ray release is well-equipped with excellent video quality for a catalog release, a fairly good sound set-up, and plenty of extras. While it may not warrant a purchase for anyone besides Japanophiles, cop-o-holics, or Michael Douglas fans, Black Rain is certainly worth a rental.
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