Received this movie yesterday from Amazon and watched it along with all the supplemental materials. Here's a quick review for anyone interested:

Black Rain, as a film, was a good film. Not a great film, but good. Unlike Ridley Scott's classic Blade Runner, Black Rain does not stand the test of time quite as well. But its still an enjoyable film, and I have a special fondness for it because it was the first film that really got me interested in visiting Japan.

The film transfer is, likewise, good, but not great. Scott does a great job of controlling grain in dark scenes, I am amazed there is not a lot more visible grain considering how much of the film was shot with "natural" lighting on-set (if you consider ubiquitous flourescent tubes natural, that is). The color saturation in the film is restrained, perhaps too much so for an action film with all the great neon lighting at their disposal - it could have been pushed higher. But all in all a solid transfer. One wouldn't expect Paramount to spring for any sort of massive overhaul as they would on a more classic film.

The compression to MPEG-2 seems also quite good. Sharpness is very good throughout, even in difficult dark scenes. Ridley Scott's trademark "smoke! more smoke!" background clutter doesn't cause any noticable banding, which was a surprise for me. The data rate on the Dual-Layer 50GB disc varies between 25 MBit/sec in slower scenes, to peaks of around 35MBit/sec in the action sequences.

On the audio side, the DTS mix at 1.5Mb rate seemed far superior to the Dolby mix. The sound-effects in both mixes seem very restrained to the front speakers, but the music/score was far more expansive for some reason on the DTS mix. As the disc defaults to Dolby. I found the DTS mix to be quite impressive, actually, except for the lack of "showy" use of discrete rear channels. Kudos to whomever remixed the score!

The extras are all in SD and are broken into three parts. I found them pretty interesting, especially when they discussed the difficulties in filming in Japan, and how they moved from Tokyo, to Osaka, and eventually filmed the bulk of the movie on soundstages and in Napa, CA to get around problems working in Japan. I had always assumed far more of the movie was filmed on-location than was actually the case.

There is also a director's commentary which I dipped in and out of through the movie, and it sounded like Scott was usually off on some wild tangent or another. Possibly interesting. I suspect many of these supplements were used in an earlier DVD re-release as they were from 2006, but they may have been original to this BD/HD-DVD release. Which begs the question why weren't they shot in HD if they were done so recently?

Overall I'd place it at the crossroads between Tier1 and Tier2. There are no "3D" moments like you'd find in a big-budget blockbuster. Some of the soundtrack choices were a bit too 1989 for me and date the movie a bit (as does Michael Douglas' hair!).

Thanks for the review. This one had just joined my unwatched pile and I haven't seen the movie since the laserdisc days. I could always use a little 80's injection now and then :)

I watched Black Rain last night and thought the PQ looked excellent. I would consider it a Tier 1.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/blackrain.html

I was debating about getting this 1, until I heard some more comments about the BD version. so you guys felt it was a good transfer then?

Yes - the sharpness was there and they used enough bandwidth to allow MPEG-2 to do a good job. A soft transfer is the one thing I just cannot tolerate in an HD disc and this did not suffer from that. Gain was under control.

The only room for improvement would have been color saturation (a tad) and the 5.1 audio mix was not something to get excited about (DTS was better but still very restrained by today's standards of movie audio).

Good extras that were actually interesting, commentary, BD-50 -- good package!

I almost picked this up at Fry's today but Goodfellas was right underneath it with a cheaper price tag (19.99). Thanks for the review, I might pick this one up next week.

Very understated review. Thought it was excellent PQ particularly for the age of the film. Very pleased.

I have never seen this one. I don't mind getting it but can anyone post what type of movie it is about? Thanks...

It's a police story. The usual american cops vs japanese underworld while they get what help they can from a local cop.

The title Black Rain is a reference to after the atomic bomb was dropped and the rain that fell after the mushroom cloud was black. It's a description by one of the secondary characters and is not a central part of the movie.

I liked this movie in the theaters and the DVD, so it is on the way, but I wouldn't say it is a must get for me. If you like hollywood crime genres set in japan, there's none better than this movie.

I have never seen this one. I don't mind getting it but can anyone post what type of movie it is about? Thanks...

It's a cheesy and very dated cop buddy picture about a pair of a*hole New York cops who travel to Japan to teach the stuffy uptight Nips the proper way to do real policework and kick some ass.

Thanks for the Review. I had never seen this movie, but saw the review on hidef digest, and went looking for it. I went to 3 different Best Buys and nobody had it. I ended up buying Goodfellas, and was finally impressed with a Blu Ray Disc as far as picture quality goes. But I only own Taladega Nights, Ice Age 2 and Black Hawk Down. I may go to Frys today to look for Black Rain. I really cant wait till some Big time movies finally show up on BR.

It's a cheesy and very dated cop buddy picture about a pair of a*hole New York cops who travel to Japan to teach the stuffy uptight Nips the proper way to do real policework and kick some ass.

uptight Nips? :mad:

I liked this film in the '80's and I enjoyed it on BD last night. Not top tier Ridley Scott, but pretty interesting, nonetheless.

I was happy to see no banding, althought it was a tad soft on detail. Some of the Japanese skyline shots could have been seamlessly cut into Bladerunner.

I like Michael Douglas' hair. :)

uptight Nips? :mad:

My choice of words reflects the way the racist jerkoff characters in the movie perceive the people of Japan. I am not expressing any personal views of my own.

My choice of words reflects the way the racist jerkoff characters in the movie perceive the people of Japan. I am not expressing any personal views of my own.


oic I misunderstood :) Are you referring to Douglas' character, or Garcia's? If anything, I thought the Yakuza was more racist (I'm chinese/japanese btw) to the cops.

I rented this and finished watching it today. I agree that it's a good, but not great transfer. I've seen the movie like 10 times now, but wanted to see how it looked in HD. I wasn't disappointed.

"The Omen" is still the best BD picture quality that I've seen so far (only watched it, Black Rain and Underworld Evolution).

oic I misunderstood :) Are you referring to Douglas' character, or Garcia's?

Moreso Douglas, but they're both a couple of racist pricks.

My HD DVD review should be posted by tomorrow at the latest. I'm about 90% finished.

Moreso Douglas, but they're both a couple of racist pricks.

Wow, what do you have against this movie? First of all, language like that is unneccesary and doesn't reflect the characters in the movie at all. The racism was subtle and implicit and had more to do with xenophobia than anything else. And even then, Garcia's character was much more likeable and accepting that Michael Douglas' character.

Towards the end of the movie, Douglas' character had appreciation for some of the japanese concept of honor, and Matsumoto learnt the value of breaking with tradition. It was a fair exchange.

I think that for Douglas' character, a New York cop, the blue collar background made the racist language and impatience with a different way of doing things understandable. That he left Osaka with a very different outlook and sense of values is also obvious that he is a different person from when he first arrived.

I watched this again and I think the transfer is decent. As is typical of old films that are not restored carefully, you can pick out places where lighting was lacking, and indoor scenes can have walls that have digital artifacts even when the mpeg2 bitrate is clearly peaking above 34 and averaging around 25. The best place to see this is on the walls in Kate Capshaw's apartment

I would give the PQ here 3.5/5, but the movie itself, I liked and watched till the end! At normal speed! I think I once had it on LD (so long ago - almost 20 yrs, maybe 16 yrs ago)

Wow, what do you have against this movie?

What I have against the movie is that it sucks.

Towards the end of the movie, Douglas' character had appreciation for some of the japanese concept of honor, and Matsumoto learnt the value of breaking with tradition. It was a fair exchange.

I think that for Douglas' character, a New York cop, the blue collar background made the racist language and impatience with a different way of doing things understandable. That he left Osaka with a very different outlook and sense of values is also obvious that he is a different person from when he first arrived.

The racism of the movie stems back to its implicit message. The movie tells us that it takes a badass white NYC cop to go to Japan to catch the bad guy, because the stuffy uptight Japanese cops are all incompetent and don't know anything about real policework. That Douglas' character learns some heartwarming life lessons about how to be friendly with foreigners doesn't change that. The bad guy only got caught because Douglas was so "street smart" and could race motorcycles and kick ass. If he hadn't been there, the Yakuza would win, because everyone in Japan is either an evil gangster or an incompetent beaurocrat.

uptight Nips? :mad:

Nip is just short for Nippon, that's all. (That's what the Japanese call Japan) It's like calling someone from Kazakhstan a Kazakh.

Nip is just short for Nippon, that's all. (That's what the Japanese call Japan) It's like calling someone from Kazakhstan a Kazakh.
Uhh, it's really not. The term 'nip' is actually quite derogatory. Just like how 'Gook' is also short for Hangook (what the Korean call Korea), but still very insulting.

If he hadn't been there, the Yakuza would win, because everyone in Japan is either an evil gangster or an incompetent beaurocrat.

Not really. If he hadn't been there Sato would have been transferred to the real Japanese cops instead of the "fake" Japanese cops.

See, deep down, the movie goes to show just how incompetant Americans really are. ;)

Not really. If he hadn't been there Sato would have been transferred to the real Japanese cops instead of the "fake" Japanese cops.

See, deep down, the movie goes to show just how incompetant Americans really are. ;)

Even deeper down, it goes to show how incompetent Ridley Scott is at picking decent scripts.

Did you see Matchstick Men? One of Ridley's better films in a looooong time. Much better than his overstuffed Gladiator. That script was well done, and not what you'd expect.

Dan

Josh Z, you crack me up.

Josh Z, you crack me up.

"crack me up" wasn't the phrase I was thinking of. :D


Black Rain easily in Scott's top 5 movies. Can't wait to get this on BD. I huge step up from the old non anamorphic DVD. Happy it's a good looking presentation.

"oh and by the way I do speak f*cking english"

I just hate it when everyone gets real PC-like and so prissy. The movie is about flawed people, flawed systems, and how an outcast down on his luck blu collar newyork cop meets his worst nightmare : a whole nation of "soots".

Even back in New York, Douglas' bogeyman was the "soots" that ruin his life. His disdain for IA and his own financial straits pushing his slow slide towards the corruption is more a testament to his failure as a person --- more than effectiveness of Japanese police at fighting their underworld.

I don't believe the intent of the movie is Racism. If Douglas and Garcia are shown to be racist, Matsumoto's presence is enough to let people understand where the fault truly lies. Matsumoto's "I do speak f*cking english" is a line that put in context how these two cops, stupid enough to hand over their prisoner to the fake cops really f*cked up and are lashing out more out of frustration than any defensible reasons.

In fact, the theme that might be lost to all is pointed out again by Capshaw when she reminded Douglas that the two american cops made the evening news (by being stupid enough to hand their prisoner to the underworld with insurance policy applications).

Matsumoto's speech to Douglas over noodles about dishonor forms the best line in the movie, and is the real reason why Douglas handed over his final present to Matsumoto.

I don't believe Racism is the central theme in this movie.

Black Rain easily in Scott's top 5 movies.

Considering that the man's only made 3 good movies, that's not saying a lot.

Considering that the man's only made 3 good movies, that's not saying a lot.

You obviously meant to say "Considering that the man's only made 3 good movies IN MY OPINION"

an opinion which obviously doesn't amount to much.

Considering that the man's only made 3 good movies, that's not saying a lot.

The Duelists
Alien
Blade Runner
Black Rain
Thelma and Louise (not a favorite of mine - but admired by many)
Gladiator
Black Hawk Down

Pretty solid list I'd say. At least three on that list are not only "good" but classics that have stood the test of time and will be remembered for decades.

What will you be remembered for?

The Duelists
Alien
Blade Runner
Black Rain
Thelma and Louise (not a favorite of mine - but admired by many)
Gladiator
Black Hawk Down

Pretty solid list I'd say. At least three on that list are not only "good" but classics that have stood the test of time and will be remembered for decades.

Bleh. Alien and Blade Runner are both masterpieces, and The Duelists is pretty good, but the rest are a wash. Especially Gladiator. What an overrated piece of crap that was.

What will you be remembered for?

I don't have a desperate need to be remembered for anything. I'm not a narcissist.

"crack me up" wasn't the phrase I was thinking of. :D


Black Rain easily in Scott's top 5 movies. Can't wait to get this on BD. I huge step up from the old non anamorphic DVD. Happy it's a good looking presentation.

"oh and by the way I do speak f*cking english"
What exactly was so good about Black Rain? The acting was bad, the dialogue was only so-so, the plot is laughable. And don't even get me started on the ending. I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but let's just say it goes against everything that the film is supposed to "teach" you. If this were screened at Cannes, it would get laughed right out of Western Europe.

Bleh. Alien and Blade Runner are both masterpieces...

Let's not dilute the word "masterpiece" now.

Especially Gladiator. What an overrated piece of crap that was.


Agreed.

The picture quality blu me away. It was amazingly sharp, clean, and vibrant for such an old film. I was not expecting such great quality. Bravo Paramount.

I also think this title has AMAZING PQ. Yes, there are a few artifacts and there is (good) grain, but Ridley Scott's visual style just shines in HD (see Kingdom of Heaven & Black Hawk Down for reference). There is so much depth & detail, it's like watching it for the first time.

I find this to be more wow-ing & three-dimensional than a lot of cleaner & newer titles like The Prestige (obviously not a "fault" of the compression, but inherent in the style of the photography).

did anyone get the japanese version yet?

Why no HD Audio track? How do they get away with it?

This was amongst the early Paramount releases that got the audio shaft. The PQ was good on parts but way too intentionally dark. For some strange reason the DD EX track was much better than the DTS track on this disc.

Holy thread revival!

and I think American Gangster was pretty good too...

:)

Thanks lg but I guess what I'm asking is I thought there was some "standard" that required a minimum for hd audio track/codec option to be "Blue ray". There are no hd audio choices on the blue ray I have. IF I am correct, how did they get away with it? I don't understand.