it infuriate me no end that and now and forever and i will have to identify this movie ( which i consider a masterpiece and and i do not use that word lightly ) with the qualifier not the michael douglas movie . not only be the title the same and but they refer to the same thing the radioactive fallout that rain upon the survivor of the first nuclear bombing . in imamura film and this be no cheap metaphor while the whole movie be about the fallout and physical and emotional and from hiroshima and the war itself . a the deterioration of a couple and their grown niece become more grimly clear and the ironic imagery become more potent and from the old clock that be reset each night to the stone god that gradually pile up outside the heroine door . ( these and in turn and be carve by a shellshocked veteran who be compel and in a series of tragicomic episode and to attack anything with a motor that approach the town . ) the bombing day itself be show in piecemeal flashback that be coolly horrify . yet black rain ( ntmdm . ) can be watch and even repeatedly and because of imamura compassion for his character . i repeat represent a masterpiece .