Black Rain (1989) on Netflix
Detective Nick Conklin faces scrutiny from Internal Affairs. He and his partner Charlie Vincent arrest a yakuza, Koji Sato, and escort him to Osaka, where men posing as police take him.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.6/1065,474 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes54%
Trailer
Plot summary
Internal Affairs believes that New York detective Nick Conklin and a former partner stole money from evidence in a drug bust, and he is behind on alimony. He and his partner Charlie Vincent see a Mafioso's lunch with Japanese businessmen turn violent when a yakuza named Koji Sato kills them and takes a package. The two officers arrest him, and the Japanese Embassy orders them to bring him to Osaka. Men dressed as police take Sato from them before the real police arrive. Nick and Charlie persuade the Osaka authorities to let them observe the search for Sato, and Assistant Inspector Masahiro Matsumoto is assigned to them. Nick also meets Joyce, an American hostess, at a nightclub, and she tells him Sato is at war with a powerful oyabun, Kunio Sugai.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Rain (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Filming in Japan grew so difficult - including an official halting a shot mid-take at a steel mill and a ban on firing blank ammunition - that Ridley Scott vowed never to shoot there again and finished the climax in California instead.
- Jackie Chan was originally approached to play villain Sato but turned the role down, feeling audiences wouldn't accept him as such a villainous character.
- Villain Sugai's Los Angeles mansion is Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, the same building Ridley Scott had already used as Rick Deckard's apartment block in Blade Runner.
- Yūsaku Matsuda, the Japanese actor who played Sato, died of bladder cancer shortly after the film was completed, and director Ridley Scott dedicated Black Rain to his memory.
- Black Rain marked the first collaboration between composer Hans Zimmer and director Ridley Scott, who went on to work together on Thelma & Louise, Hannibal, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Matchstick Men.
- Harrison Ford and Kurt Russell were both strongly considered for the lead role of Nick Conklin before Michael Douglas was cast, thanks to his favorable relationship with producers Sherry Lansing and Stanley R. Jaffe.
- The unfavorable working conditions on the shoot also caused the original cinematographer, Howard Atherton, to quit early in production, and he was replaced by Jan de Bont.
- Paul Verhoeven was originally set to direct but left during a slow development process to make Total Recall instead, later reuniting with Michael Douglas on Basic Instinct.
