Rainy Dog - Every Day It Rains In Taipei

The second film in Takashi Miike's Black Society Trilogy

Trailer in 3, 2, 1:


I guess Miike's movies weren't always so crazy. Neither this film nor its predecessor Shinjuku Triad Society were as over-the-top as his later movies (I'm looking at you Ichi the Killer). Interesting side note, did you know that when Ichi the Killer premiered at its first film festival they handed out custom-made barf bags as a commemorative gift? Anyway, that isn't the movie I'm reviewing today.

So, Yuuji is an outcast Yakuza living out his days in Taiwan. To make money he works as a freelance hitman. One day a woman shows up at his doorstep, hands him a young boy that she says is his son, and is mute, and promptly leaves. Another character is introduced early on, a man from Yuuji's past (I don't remember his character ever being given a name) that wants Yuuji dead. They play a little game of cat and mouse. Yuuji shacks up with a whore, and she seems to stick with him. Yuuji pulls off a hit, and finds that the man he killed was carrying a briefcase loaded with cash. Things just keep getting more complicated for Yuuji...

Taipei itself is a character in the movie. It is a dirty city where people can be shot or stabbed in the street and no one even screams. It is almost always raining in Taipei. All of the characters hate the city. There are children eating out of trash bags on the street, and men pissing from rooftops. Only the unnamed man that wants Yuuji dead seems to like the city. Yuuji is particularly unfond of the city. When he was a boy his grandmother told him that it brings bad luck if you go outside while it is raining.

I noticed something early in this movie, and I know I've seen it before in other Japanese movies. During one scene a man is taking a piss. He deliberately gets a little on one of his hands, and then quickly wipes his fingers on each side of his neck, as though he were applying cologne. What the hell is that all about?

This movie also gives one more reason not to hold your gun sideways like a gangster. You won't hit anything! Two men, professional gang members, each unload a full clip at a car that is driving straight toward them and neither one of them hits the car even once. They miss the whole car!

There is a scene at the end that is reminiscent of something from Kill Bill Vol. 1. I know Tarantino is a fan of Miike, so I'm sure he ripped it off. Watch this movie, and then send me a message to let me know if you caught it.

This is a really good movie about broken people living in a broken city. **** 4 stars.