I Come With the Rain was
posted up at
jdramas, so I watched it today. And now I am highly recommending it. With some caveats.
If you are easily squicked, this is definitely not a movie for you. One of the characters makes sculptures out of human body parts. There is a lot of violence, some gore, and a scene with bugs on Kimura Takuya's pretty face. Personally, I thought the level of gore was really good. Nothing was
too graphic - the bits that would've been were off-screen or hidden by camera angles/props - but there were definitely moments where I cringed in sympathetic agony. Lots of moments. But in a good way.
On the shallow upside, Josh Hartnett spends about half the movie shirtless (...though occasionally bloodied at the same time), and Lee Byung Hun, KimuTaku, and Shawn Yue are all shirtless at least once within the first hour. :D? And you get to watch them all speak English. Even Josh Hartnett! XPP And that KimuTaku dude.
Overall, I thought the movie had a great sense of tension. Even when you know what's coming - the director liked to draw some moments out a lot - there's more of a feeling of, "Oh crap oh crap oh crap" than "blah blah blah." Some themes were pushed a bit too hard, I felt, but it wasn't so relentless that it ruined the movie by any means.
The music was done by Gustavo Santaolalla and Radiohead. Personally, I could've done with less Radiohead and more Gustavo, but the score went well with the movie. Stylistically, it took me a couple minutes to get used to the pacing and the filming style, but it fits the story as well. This director is the one currently signed on to adapt Murakami's
Norweigan Wood, and I will tentatively say I think his style will work with Murakami's quirkiness (though obviously, it's a bit different adapting a book to screen than directing something that's purely script), which makes me happy.
And it was generally refreshing getting to see Asian actors with Western actors in a movie like this. Specifically, it was awesome getting to see KimuTaku ~the idol~ playing the character he does. I haven't seen anything from his filmography but
MR. BRAIN, but this doesn't strike me as typical idol fare. XD
I really hope it gets a wider release (i.e. one in the US at all?). It'd be great to see it in one part, instead of two. Plus, the sound on the
jdramas version would fade in and out sometimes, and I couldn't quite tell if/how much of it was intentional for Dramatic Effect, or if it was due to the rip, but either way, it was a bit distracting. And, of course, it'd just be nice to see Asians in American-released movies in a "cool" movie like this one
instead of seeing Americans in American remakes of "cool" Asian movies. :D
Also, I was halfway through that last sentence when I noticed that
nihongofrancais had posted a reviewflail about this movie too. Granted, her's is a little more spoilery (on a certain scale of spoileriness - she doesn't give a blow-by-blow account, ofc XD), but see, I am not the only one who recommends it!