To start with, both movies of 1989 - "Kuroi ame" (Japan) and "Black Rain" (USA) - are quite familiar to me and they both are quite impressive: the former - as a historical drama and the latter - as a dramatic crime/action. It was the American feature that made me stumble upon "Kuroi ame" (it really had looked strange to me that the movies with the same title had been of the same year as well). To compare the two is futile. They do not handle the same material (though, the Ridley Scott feature touches upon the black rain topic appropriately to say the least) and belong to different genre sections. Watch "Black Rain" after "Kuroi ame" and you will have an impression that the doppelgangers of those young Japanese bikers, who appear at the very end of "Kuroi ame", have a story of their own in "Black Rain".
My review concerns the Japanese movie (no surprise) that consists of two parts (surprise?): the original black and white feature plus the colour "alternate" ending, which is actually the real ending of the movie with the events that never collide with the first part, but add new details to the tragic story. Don't be afraid to watch the colour excerpt. It will not spoil the atmosphere of the movie: it will expand your impression. No use re-telling the story itself, so just a few words about some striking features of "Kuroi ame" that impressed me the most.
The dwellers of Hiroshima right after the bombing are quite disturbingly depicted – the director does in cinema what previously was brilliantly done in anime ("Hadashi no gen" – remember?).
The young girl experiences radiation sickness with uncommon patience and courage (no fits of suicidal behaviour), losing her beauty and strength every single day.
Stone figures of those who perished after the bomb had fallen look like the frozen corpses of those who caught the atomic flesh-melting flash.
The unstable young Japanese man fights any vehicle as soon as he hears the engine running but can fight his illness when he is helping his beloved.
The final frames, showing the modern Japan, westernized to a high degree, selling out pieces of Hiroshima to the tourists, and quite possibly not knowing definitely who dropped the bomb and why (and perhaps not caring much), are really an embodiment of the words "unjust peace", which you hear at the very end of the film.
Suppose, the director had a headache: either he should include the colour part into the original black and white feature or not (Mr Takashi Miike told us in the interview that the events of the colour part were not in the novel itself). Well, my point is that he should have. It draws a good bold line under the title and keeps the message of the film running. The viewers do not have philosophical exchanges whether the girl survives or not any more (you could only predict, if you had not seen the colour part), but can dwell upon more profound topics instead (like the one raised by the dying man in the film). And the bloody teeth would have never impressed the audience like this, if it were not in colour.
No drum roll, just a 10 out of 10 for a very good reason. Thank you for attention.
My review concerns the Japanese movie (no surprise) that consists of two parts (surprise?): the original black and white feature plus the colour "alternate" ending, which is actually the real ending of the movie with the events that never collide with the first part, but add new details to the tragic story. Don't be afraid to watch the colour excerpt. It will not spoil the atmosphere of the movie: it will expand your impression. No use re-telling the story itself, so just a few words about some striking features of "Kuroi ame" that impressed me the most.
The dwellers of Hiroshima right after the bombing are quite disturbingly depicted – the director does in cinema what previously was brilliantly done in anime ("Hadashi no gen" – remember?).
The young girl experiences radiation sickness with uncommon patience and courage (no fits of suicidal behaviour), losing her beauty and strength every single day.
Stone figures of those who perished after the bomb had fallen look like the frozen corpses of those who caught the atomic flesh-melting flash.
The unstable young Japanese man fights any vehicle as soon as he hears the engine running but can fight his illness when he is helping his beloved.
The final frames, showing the modern Japan, westernized to a high degree, selling out pieces of Hiroshima to the tourists, and quite possibly not knowing definitely who dropped the bomb and why (and perhaps not caring much), are really an embodiment of the words "unjust peace", which you hear at the very end of the film.
Suppose, the director had a headache: either he should include the colour part into the original black and white feature or not (Mr Takashi Miike told us in the interview that the events of the colour part were not in the novel itself). Well, my point is that he should have. It draws a good bold line under the title and keeps the message of the film running. The viewers do not have philosophical exchanges whether the girl survives or not any more (you could only predict, if you had not seen the colour part), but can dwell upon more profound topics instead (like the one raised by the dying man in the film). And the bloody teeth would have never impressed the audience like this, if it were not in colour.
No drum roll, just a 10 out of 10 for a very good reason. Thank you for attention.