Cover Art

Credits

Director: Takashi Miike Starring: Sho Aikawa, Lianmei Chen, Ming-Jun Mao, Jiangin He and Tomorowo Taguchi Screenplay: Seigo Inoue Music: Koji Endo Country: Japan AKA: Gokudô kuroshakai

The story follows the fortunes of a Japanese gangster, Yuji (Sho Aikawa), who operates on the fringes of the Taiwanese criminal mobs, in the city of Taipei, as a contract killer for hire. He also holds to a strange tradition of never venturing out into the rain, which means he doesn't get out much, considering how rain drenched Taipei is. However, not long into the story, Yuji finds himself given the task of raising the son he never knew he had, when one of his former flames arrives with the child in tow. Not wanting this responsibility, Yuji simply carries on as if the boy doesn't even exist, ignoring the child completely. The boy, Ah Chen, duly follows his disinterested father around from hit to hit, witnessing first-hand what his father does for a living. As the film progresses, Yuji slowly begins to acknowledge Ah Chen as his son, and then seeks to make a safe passage for his son out of Taipei, as he has killers on his tail who want revenge for a murder he committed. As the killers close in on him, Yuji desperately seeks safety for his son and would-be-mother, a hooker who Yuji picks up along the way as a surrogate mother for his son. Will he find a way out? Well, this is Miike we're talking about here, so you can pretty much guarantee a downbeat ending.

Unusually, for Miike, Rainy Dog has very real human element at the centre of its story, and Miike actually manages to get us to care about the central protagonists. The film, whilst having moments of cold-blooded violence, actually has a very heavy sense of despair and sadness about it. Sho Aikawa is excellent as the disaffected Yakuza outcast who slowly finds his emotions switching on, and by the end of the film, despite his violent actions, we are somehow rooting for him, even though he is something of an anti-hero. It lacks the intensity of many other Miike films, but is the better for it, in this instance. Miike wisely roots the story in the human drama that is unfolding and tells the story not only through dialogue, but through the use of startling and haunting imagery – like the shots of gangsters plodding through the rain drenched streets of Taipei. The film is very lyrical and has a kind of beauty about it, whilst alternately contrasted with scenes of brutal and merciless killing. I would say that this is the most interesting and perfectly formed Takashi Miike film I've seen to date, and arguably his best work. Not as controversial as his blood-drenched epic Ichi the Killer or the shocking Audition, Rainy Dog is possibly the better film for making an impact without resorting to controversy.