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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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100289
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10028900.037
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1990-09-18
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CINEMA, Page 90Bakelite in Heat
BLACK RAIN
Directed by Ridley Scott
Screenplay by Craig Bolotin and Warren Lewis
This fall the moviegoer has a choice of two Black Rains set in
Japan, but they're not hard to tell apart. One is Shohei Imamura's
stark meditation on Hiroshima 1945. The other is a cop movie backed
by some heavy Hollywood artillery: the producers of Fatal
Attraction. Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia are two New York City
detectives on the trail of a cool, vicious Japanese gangster
(Yusaku Matsuda). Their contact in the Osaka constabulary is a
by-the-book gent (Ken Takakura) affronted by Douglas' bullying.
You've seen this picture before; last year it was called Red Heat.
"Theft is theft -- there is no gray area," Takakura observes, and
Douglas ripostes, "New York is one big gray area."
There are no gray areas in Ridley Scott movies; the director
of Blade Runner tosses color and atmosphere into every shot. The
man has never photographed a dry sidewalk in his life; the tiles
have got to glisten like Bakelite in heat. Neon glyphs snake around
each lurid shop sign. An ominous bike boy threads his Suzuki around
columns in a Japanese mall-cathedral.
Is this the pinnacle of Scott's luscious style or a parody of
it? Maybe it's the spectacle of a director running for cover.
Scott's last hit was Alien, a decade ago; these days his brother
Tony directs the blockbusters (Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II). So
Black Rain catches a gifted imagist between inspirations, biding
his time without quite wasting ours.