He comes to Japan with a "*beep* everyone" attitude, he treats Matsumoto like *beep* when he's just doing his job, he assaults suspects, he has no respect for the Japanese police department, and he loses a high profile criminal while in custody. I found his character more unlikable than Sato. Douglas should of died and the rest of the movie should of been Andy Garcia and Ken Takakura.
shareWell that was kind of the point of the character's arc! By the end, he takes in Sato for redemption, rather than kill him like the old Nick might have done. He admits stealing the money to Mas and definately undergoes a change after Charlie is killed.
shareEven though Nick changes at the end, it seems like he never really saw the error of his ways. The movie even sides with Nick's bad behavior, because by not going by the book and ignoring the rules is how they save the day. It would of made more sense if Nick realized everything was his fault. Then, Mas taught him how to be a better cop, and by listening to Mas and following the rules is how they catch Sato. Instead the opposite happens, which means the movie is basically saying Nick was right all along.
shareI always liked pretending this Nick was the same character Douglas played a few years later in Basic Instinct, and pretending Basic Instinct is a sequel.
But Basic Instinct Nick is a bit more blatantly stupid than Black Rain Nick.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
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It's interesting that both characters are homicide cops named Nick C. He may have been dumber in Basic Instinct but it was a much better movie. I'm a sucker for movies set in Tokyo or about Japanese culture. Black Rain is as stupid as Rising Sun and I prefer the latter.
shareThey never would have caught him following the rules. Mas was a bureaucrat. The police in Tokyo lie about the crime rate to make it seem low. They grab a fall guy and claim we catch all the bad guys. They find a dead hooker with her throat slashed in an alley and write it up as suicide. That's why they have a high "suicide" rate in Japan because the police are lazy and dishonest liars. The book "freakanomics" talks about this, I think. They found a dead sumo wrestler who had been beaten up and burned with cigarettes and wrote that up as a suicide. Don't pretend that the police anywhere are honest or worthy of trust or generally act honorably. They do not. In Japan the vicious Yakuza mafia bosses eat dinner with politicians and are treated like celebrities. They are all criminals.
shareI remember Nick does admit that he's not proud of stealing, but he did it because of debts, kids to feed etc etc not an excuse, but he knew his actions were wrong. The ending redeems him somewhat though when he hands over the plate and Sato(who he could've killed).
shareI agree with Bamboo. It's the character and his journey. And what you have to remember; is when it comes to police ethics, it ain't easy out there. NYC is one big grey area.
shareSounds like a description of common police behavior in the USA. Where people get choked to death for selling cigarettes illegally (without tax) and they keep right on when he says he can't breathe. And then idiots make excuses for the cops and say if that guy could talk he must have been able to breathe. Uh, no. Talking does not imply you can breathe. You could be forcing out the last of your air desperately trying to tell a vicious thug to stop chocking you. But American idiots are like you should not resist police brutality even if they're killing you. Maybe good cops are the exception: police who don't lie to people or try to manipulate or coerce them or assault them or rape them or steal from them. The whole drug war is legalized theft and kidnapping.
shareNick was overall a good cop with some bad flaws. His "street smarts" were legit. The core of the story was how Nick teaches Mas to be a better and more effective cop by not being such a tight assed bureaucrat, and Mas teaches Nick that he should never do anything dishonorable, no matter how good his excuses are.
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