Having read Eisler's entire Rain series, I had high hopes for Rain Fall, but the film garbled it pretty bad. I don't know if having read the book was an advantage in making sense of a disjointed plot, or a disadvantage because I already knew what was supposed to be going on but never quite seemed to be.
Despite good performances by (ever reliable) Gary Oldman as Holtzer, Akira Emoto as grizzled cop Tatsu & Takeshi Wakamatsu as offbeat Benny, this film is stylishly framed cinematic gibberish. Kippei Shiina, as Rain, never seems quite right, a proficient action figure, but not personally intriguing — tho this is probably down to the production rather than any fault of his. The scriptwriting, though credited — if that's the right word — to Max Mannix, seems like it was written by a committee who all had different concepts of the film & added & subtracted random bits according to momentary impulse, leaving it so muddled it's hard to judge to what extent Mannix's direction helped or hindered. The result is just a flawed action movie that could have been more.
Particularly egregious is the denouement in which Rain returns to New York. It's like they rushed us through the plot so quickly they ran out of storyline & had to resort to filler in order to — theoretically — give us our money's worth. So Rain pointlessly relives the childhood rooftop experience he's already related in detail to Midori. Then there's a series of flashbacks in which Midori & Rain separately but meltingly recall their moments together. Then he peeps in on one of her piano performances, but slips out before she can see him. Then he shows up across from her apartment & they spend a long damn time smiling at one other — Midori torn between joyous tears & laughter. The melodramatic tension (yawn) builds as you wonder whether or not they'll end up together, climaxing when a bus obscures Rain from Midori's sight. And then, when the bus pulls out, there he is, still there! How lovely, they're going to live happily ever after, right? Then he gives her his enigmatic smile, turns & walks away. Huh?
Finally — how's this for an anticlimactic cliffhanger? — Rain seeks out by name some specific tough guy in a very ambiguous biker bar full of nothing but tough guys. (Biker bar without mamas? Seriously hard core rough trade gay bar?) Portentously, Rain introduces himself &.... Roll credits. WTF? Like, who is this tough guy? Where does he fit in? Did I miss something here? (If I did, I'm certainly not gonna watch it again just to figure it out.) Or were they actually thinking sequel here, setting up Rain's next "thrilling" adventure? Even tho they've already killed off several viable characters who play a continued role in the book series? Even tho nobody I know who's seen this turkey would even for a moment consider sitting through another one? Downright delusional. Too bad. In the right hands, this could have been the first of a good series.
Despite good performances by (ever reliable) Gary Oldman as Holtzer, Akira Emoto as grizzled cop Tatsu & Takeshi Wakamatsu as offbeat Benny, this film is stylishly framed cinematic gibberish. Kippei Shiina, as Rain, never seems quite right, a proficient action figure, but not personally intriguing — tho this is probably down to the production rather than any fault of his. The scriptwriting, though credited — if that's the right word — to Max Mannix, seems like it was written by a committee who all had different concepts of the film & added & subtracted random bits according to momentary impulse, leaving it so muddled it's hard to judge to what extent Mannix's direction helped or hindered. The result is just a flawed action movie that could have been more.
Particularly egregious is the denouement in which Rain returns to New York. It's like they rushed us through the plot so quickly they ran out of storyline & had to resort to filler in order to — theoretically — give us our money's worth. So Rain pointlessly relives the childhood rooftop experience he's already related in detail to Midori. Then there's a series of flashbacks in which Midori & Rain separately but meltingly recall their moments together. Then he peeps in on one of her piano performances, but slips out before she can see him. Then he shows up across from her apartment & they spend a long damn time smiling at one other — Midori torn between joyous tears & laughter. The melodramatic tension (yawn) builds as you wonder whether or not they'll end up together, climaxing when a bus obscures Rain from Midori's sight. And then, when the bus pulls out, there he is, still there! How lovely, they're going to live happily ever after, right? Then he gives her his enigmatic smile, turns & walks away. Huh?
Finally — how's this for an anticlimactic cliffhanger? — Rain seeks out by name some specific tough guy in a very ambiguous biker bar full of nothing but tough guys. (Biker bar without mamas? Seriously hard core rough trade gay bar?) Portentously, Rain introduces himself &.... Roll credits. WTF? Like, who is this tough guy? Where does he fit in? Did I miss something here? (If I did, I'm certainly not gonna watch it again just to figure it out.) Or were they actually thinking sequel here, setting up Rain's next "thrilling" adventure? Even tho they've already killed off several viable characters who play a continued role in the book series? Even tho nobody I know who's seen this turkey would even for a moment consider sitting through another one? Downright delusional. Too bad. In the right hands, this could have been the first of a good series.