Year of the Dragon & Black Rain

Rotten Rewind

Vulgar Neo-Noir continues this week with one of the most controversial and divisive films - and filmmakers - of their time. 1980s Hollywood was steeped in Orientalism, predominately seen in action films like "Flash Gordon" and "Big Trouble in Little China" and futuristic sci-fi landscapes like the iconic imagery of "Blade Runner." We're riding solo today for an in-depth conversation about the fetishization of Asian culture in Hollywood cinema, specifically in Michael Cimino's murky Chinatown crime thriller "Year of the Dragon" and Ridley Scott's neon-drenched Yakuza thriller "Black Rain."
Does "Year of the Dragon's" ambiguous morality stand in the way of it being the masterpiece it so badly wants to be? Has there ever been a more unsympathetic "hero" than Mickey Rourke's racist, Vietnam vet turned renegade cop, Stanley White? Is "Black Rain" unofficial dudes rock cinema? Can Michael Douglas play a bad boy? How hard does Jan de Bont go in "Black Rain?" Are you even boys if you don't call each other "babe?" Is this fucking Vietnam all over again?! There's only one place to find out...

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