Black Rain

Black Rain

classified 18 PS

part of Transnational Japan in Hollywood

Film

Sun 20 July 14:00

Director
Ridley Scott
Cast
Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura
Details
125 mins, Partially Subtitled, 1989, Japan, USA
Primary language
English, Japanese

Produced at the height of Japan’s bubble economy, Ridley Scott’s Black Rain (1989) captures a sense of cultural anxiety.

Set in a neon-lit, dystopian Osaka that visually echoes Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), the film portrays Japan as both alluring and alien. Michael Douglas stars as Nick, a morally ambiguous NYPD detective whose desperation to assert control may be construed as emblematic of the West’s struggle to reconcile economic rivalry with cultural fascination.

The contrast between Masahiro Matsumoto, played by Ken Takakura, an honourable cop who acts as Nick’s moral compass, and the menacing yakuza Sato, delivered in Yusaku Matsuda’s indelible posthumous performance, emphasises the paradoxical picture of Japan.


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