SOURCE: Moore, Suzanne. “Sun Rises in the East.” New Statesman and Society 3, no. 86 (2 February 1990): 44.

In the following review, Moore notes how Scott portrays American individualism in contrast with Japanese collectivism in Black Rain.

Is it really fair to compare a film made in one of the poorest countries in the world with a ＄37 million production by one of Hollywood's flashiest directors? No of course not. But Yaaba, made in Burkina Faso, a country with no filmmaking infrastructure will have to compete with Ridley Scott's Black Rain. Such is the democracy of the marketplace.

In fact this week's releases seem deliberately chosen to highlight the inequities of “the system”. First we have the big boys. Brian de Palma's Casualties of War is another hugely expensive guilt-tripping Vietnam movie. Then there is Scott's Black Rain set in Japan, Yaaba from Africa and Piravi from Kerala in India. Yaaba and Piravi...