Ridley Scott directs Michael Douglas, Ken Takakura and Andy Garcia in this fish-out-of-water thriller where two NYC cops transporting a Japanese prisoner back to Osaka lose him at the airport.

Plot wise this is standard product. A less serious tone and it could easily be Beverly Hills Cop Goes Japan. Douglas looks like he will fuck anything that moves (if only he had the time). Ridley clearly loves filming modern Japan. Neon, trucks, motorbikes, clean lines. He has a visual hoot. It is a quite loose, quite basic movie but when it hits a note it hits it with intensity. Some decent mid level action if you aren’t keen on the travelogue and brooding culture clash performances. Put into production when Japan was buying up American corporations and movie studios but it ain’t as xenophobic as you’d fear. Made for Saturday nights in.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Rising Sun (1993)