HIGH & LOW: THE RED RAIN Review: Action And Drama Hit Hard And Heavy With Sentiment And Swagger
Director and screenwriter Yudai Yamaguchi, best known for arousing regional cult film fandom with respective credits such as Battlefield Baseball, Deadball and Yakuza Weapon, as well as Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus and Alive, cuts to the long-awaited chase in the High & Low universe, spinning off with High & Low: The Red Rain. Exile Tribe’s multifaceted in-house talents: Takahiro of Exile, and Hiroomi Tosaka of J Soul Brothers, reprise their roles respectively as Masaki and Hiroto Amamiya, otherwise infamously known as the Amamiya brothers, who are long heralded as two of the fiercest fighters among all the established gangs that make up the S.W.O.R.D. district.
As the High & Low franchise presents thusfar up to this point, the Amamiyas have long been searching for their missing brother, Takeru (Takumi Saito). Highlighting a prelude to current events, High & Low: The Red Rain takes off in high octane fashion with the Masaki and Hiroto in hot pursuit of a package seized by a gang of bikers. After retrieving the package with Takeru’s help and splitting the earnings with their employer, Takeru parts ways with Masaki and Hiroto, and the reason why is a mystery. Fast forward a year later, the film reintroduces the brothers once more following the aftermath of the previous film, High & Low: The Movie, as law enforcement has begun a severe crackdown on gang activity.
Coming up on the anniversary of their parents’ death, a chance meeting with a young woman named Aika (Miyu Yoshimoto) finds Hiroto and Masaki intruded on by gang members donning white dress-suits – emblematic of their loyalty to the Kamizono crime family, one of the nine families of the notorious Kuryu conglomerate, and led by boss Uezono (Ken Ishiguro). The scuffle ensues a treacherous journey for the trio as they scavenge for clues leading to Takeru’s disappearance, and Aika’s mysterious connection to Takeru with respect to a USB drive containing sensitive information regarding a legal case her lawyer father was working on, and through the help of old frenemies, the Amamiya sibs may have just gotten a little more closer to the truth of Takeru’s whereabouts, albeit at a grave cost.
On its face, High & Low: The Red Rain has the look and allure of a tough, badass and gritty action thriller, and it definitely plays the part when it has to. The film wastes little time with its first two-phase action sequence, host to an explosive motorcycle chase to scenic, gangbusters fisticuffs between the Amamiya brothers, and a gang of crazed gangsters. It’s also the only time we briefly see Takeru go toe to toe with some of the same gangsters which is convincingly well done, although the most odd part of it is when Masaki and Hiroto reach the final floor of the hideout and Takeru is already there, with no explanations on either end.
It’s not all fast-paced action and thrills though, as it’s just a little more procedural on the story end. Flashback moments are sizeable and extenuating, and so while the performances are adequate and well done, the scenes tend to take up an excessive amount of concurrent storytime. This also speaks to the more emotive, dramatic tone at times, especially when a key character is killed off, and it leads to a near-nine minute send off sequence, imbued by some high-speed lensing to create a “bullet time” shot of rainfall. You can gather as much that Yamaguchi did this to flesh out as much as he could of an emotional turning point for the sake of story, and to say the least, it does feel strained to a degree.
The film as a whole is a fair bit of justice done for actors Takahiro and Tosaka, who’ve carried their roles for about four years from the small to the big screen. Next to the action sequences and watching as they sit in cool poses on their motorcycles and slo-mo walk side-by-side with some of the most profuse swagger you’ll ever see in film, it’s fun watching how their characters distinguish from one another, with Masaki as the more flirtatious and youthful brother among the two, and Hiroto as the stoic, more smoother one – in some ways, sort of taking after Takeru who’s had a big picture view of things and always played a cool hand, always the definitive, caring and unmovable big brother who would never let go until he knew you were okay.
Yamaguchi, being no stranger to the action genre throughout his own career, might have tried a little harder for High & Low: The Red Rain to not feel so paltry at times. It doesn’t take away from the thrill of seeing the story unfold as part of a larger universe, nor some of the really cool action moments, including the finale with both brothers making a crashing entrance into the Kamizono mansion and dismantle an entire room of gangsters armed with machine guns without even so much as directly using one on either end; That kind of choreography is instantly exciting to watch, and is part and parcel with just the kind of movie one may expect High & Low: The Red Rain to be, despite what reality stipulates.
It’s a missed opportunity, really, considering that the big sell for the Amamiya brothers is their fighting prowess and reputation as the toughest guys to ever take on any gang within the S.W.O.R.D. district, and it wouldn’t have hurt to up the antee after the amazing fight spectacle in High & Low: The Red Rain. Instead, you get a high-speed chase finale with the Amamiyas forced to dodge gunfire and vehicular manslaughter in order to get their man. Not for nothing though, as the climax here still lives up to the exciting High & Low brand, but it is worth noting not to mistake this film for something it isn’t. At the end of the day, it’s another entry into an otherwise successful Japanese film franchise that plays the part and entertains with the intent to tease further, and for that, be sure to check back for my thoughts on High & Low 2: End Of Sky very soon.
Click here for previous coverage and reviews of the High & Low movies, now playing exclusively on Netflix.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!