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| Rainy Dog By Yodasnoog |
| This 1997 effort from one of my favourite Japanese directors, Takashi Miike (Ichi The Killer, Dead Or Alive, Audition), can be seen on two levels in my opinion. Firstly, it could be the story of a cold and lonley man who learns how to be human again. Secondly, it could be subtitled “How to Not Look After Your Kid”. Ofcourse I’m only half serious there, as Rainy Dog is most definetly a classic. Sho Aikawa (Dead Or Alive) plays Yuji, an ex Yakuza, now working as a hitman for Triads in Taipei. One day, an old girlfriend of his turns up out of the blue with a small boy and tells Sho that the kid is his and he is now his resposibility. She then leaves. All the while a mysterious man played by the brilliant Tomoro Taguchi (Tetsuo 1+2) follows Yuji around...but eventually gets a brutal beating for doing so. Over the next few days, the kid follows Yuji around like a lost puppy. It is while he is following him, he witnesses him blow a mans head off in front of his family, by this point the kid has realised that his father isnt exactly a normal parent. Along the way, Yuji forms a bond with a local prostitue, they stay locked away in a room for a few days, having sex and smoking weed as heavy rain comes down outside. Alright for some isnt it? This is a very bleak movie indeed, for the first hour Yuji is probabaly one of the most morose characters I’ve ever seen in a movie, Sho Aikawa is certainly in Kitano mode here. While the violence in this movie isn’t as high as other Miike classics, it still manages to shock with its subtlety. For example, the scene in which the boy witnesses Yuji shooting a man for the first time, the reaction shot of the victims infant son was enough to unsettle me quite a bit, as it is shot in such a cold and realistic manner. It’s scenes like this that remind us that we are not going to witness the stylish hitman antics we’ve seen in John Woo’s classic, The Killer. Yuji’s is very cool and collected, a nice character touch is his superstitious nature, he never leaves the house or does a job when it rains, as he considers it bad luck. And it rains a hell of a lot in this movie. The soundtrack is really special too, with its realxing acoustic blues guitar, it really sets the atmosphere, and blends perfectly with the rain soaked streets of Taipei. Rainy Dog is the second part of Miike’s infamous Triad Society Trilogy (the others being Shinjuku Triad Society & Ley Lines) All in all a very cool and noirish hitman/ganster movie, its not surprising that the Time Out Film Guide said that “it’s very likeley the coolest rainsoaked lonley hitman movie ever made.” I have to agree with them there. |
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