Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I'm happy I can finally say now that I've watched a great Takashi Miike film. Rainy Dog retains all the gritty, stylish motifs that Miike is known for, but this time his story is grounded in reality. Rainy Dog tells the story of a struggling Japanese hit-man that hates the rain as he's living out in Taiwan. His world is upheaved when a woman from his past informs him that he has a son, which she dumps on him.The film then goes from being a gangster flick into a hybrid coming of age story as both the father and son as they adapt to their situation. Whilst the father is also trying to evade a local crime boss who's after him. Rainy Dog is a quiet, slow paced introspective film. This film worked well for me as i'm not a fan of Miike's usually hyper-kinetic direction and the over the top silliness that's found in most of his screenplays. This film has an engaging narrative, even if it borders occasionally on clichés that are found in the gangster genre. There's nothing wholly original in this film. However what makes it work though is how well directed the film is and the serious thoughtful approach given to the script.The films cinematography has a wonderful atmospheric tone, the whole film is literally drenched in rain which adds another layer on emotion on top of the film. The film also has fleshed out interesting characters, that whilst flawed, they're also sympathetic and relatable. One of the main issue I have with Miike's films are the poor characterisations, most of the time his characters feel like cartoons. Here he goes a great job of making them feel human. In the end Rainy Dog is a familiar but effective crime drama, and is one of Miike's best films.

The same day as watching Shinjuku Triad Society I continued with this one. It was a Japanese film special and I didn't read any background info before the movie whatsoever, but after STS (and Kuroshiya Ichi a month before) I decided to give a miss to all Miike films. Luckily I did not know this was Miike.This was really a surprise noir after the no substance of the previous mentioned. A yakuza goes to Taiwan and works as a hit-man when suddenly his son is dumped upon him, a son he didn't know he had and doesn't want to have either. I don't want to give away much but the movie is dense with atmosphere and humour, it's easily his best alongside Audition, Birdpeople of China and The Negotiator. Akin for Takeshi Kitano, but definitely Miike.

I have to say that this time I enjoyed a Miike's movie (and that is not too usual on me, because, to be honest, Takashi Miike is a director that sometimes is difficult for me to understand). I loved the story, because it shows the world of yakuza into today globalization (it is the story of a Japanese yakuza, Yuuji, who has to run away Japan and get a refuge in Taiwan and get on business to Taiwanese triad societies). That is the same Takeshi Kitano did some years later in his famous "Brother" (2000). But, better that Kitano's movie, this Miike's film shows a more real yakuza atmosphere, with sad stories and broken lives within the frame of Taipei low depths, and not those Kitano's Armani-dressed yakuzas that make violence something symbolic and aesthetic. I insist that broken lives is the most emotive point of this film: not just the main character (Yuuji, played by Sho Aikawa), but whoever is sentimentally linked to him: the little son he had with a Taiwanese woman and the prostitute who finally helps him when his life is in danger). The end is probably the best of the film: when one can believe is going to see a not very original and foreseeable Hollywood-style end, suddenly things change...

One of the first Takashi Miike movies I ever saw was 'Dead Or Alive' and shocked me because it didn't play by "the rules", adding unexpected surreal touches to the violent yakuza thriller genre. I reacted very negatively to the movie at the time, but I subsequently grew to admire it the more I got into Miike's groove. Now that I'm familiar with Miike's more extreme movies like 'Ichi The Killer' and 'Visitor Q' I'm prepared for just about anything, but I was once again a bit nonplussed the first time I watched 'Rainy Dog'. Not because it was outrageous, but because it wasn't. 'Rainy Dog' is nothing like Miike's other early yakuza movies like 'Fudoh: The New Generation' and 'Full Metal Yazuza'. Anyone expecting the ultra-violent action and crazy humour of those two will be disappointed. Instead 'Rainy Dog' is a slow, atmospheric character study, very serious and dark in tone. Miike regular Sho Aikawa plays Yuuji a low level hit man exiled in Tawain. Yuuji is depressed from the relentless rain and becoming increasingly alienated. He sees no reason to his monotonous existence. One day a former lover (his wife?) turns up with a young boy (his child? It's not clear) who she dumps. Yuuji ignores the child who camps outside his flat and tags along on his hits. The boy seems to slowly humanize him, as does a prostitute he becomes involved with, but perhaps it is too late. Yuuji's life of violence is about to catch up with him. Miike makes great use of the rain soaked locations, and the movie is interesting for the fact that apart from Aikawa and another one of his regular actors Tomorowo Taguchi the cast is Tawainese and much of the dialogue is in Mandarin. The soundtrack regularly features a Ry Cooder-like slide guitar, and overall the movie has more in common with Takeshi Kitano's yakuza movies that Miike's. 'Rainy Dog' isn't one of Miike's most outrageous movies but it's still recommended and shows a more thoughtful side to this amazing director.