‘Rain’s’ Cloudy Issue

In “Black Rain” (opening Friday), American cop Michael Douglas, on a mission to Japan, expands his cultural consciousness. But the Paramount Pictures promotional staff may not be so culturally aware: A Japanese-born reader tips us that a translation of the movie’s title into Japanese that appears boldly at the top of publicity material is incorrect.

The first set of characters translates correctly as “black,” said our source, but the second set appears to be nonsense--not really a word at all. She surmised that Paramount attempted a phonetic translation of “rain,” and simply goofed.

A Paramount spokeswoman, without elaboration, said the studio stands by its “literal translation.”

Outtakes took this storm of controversy to Little Tokyo, where Japanese-speaking persons were shown Paramount’s publicity item. All agreed that “black” was correctly translated--and were likewise confounded by the second set of Japanese characters.

“I know definitely the first word is black,” said Diana Murayama, a cashier at the New Otani hotel. “The second--not really a word.”

Definitely a “mistake,” said Fumiko Hosonuma, service manager at the Mikawaya Bakery, of the attempt at the second word.

“It’s nothing,” argued a gift shop clerk, asking for anonymity. “It could be all kinds of meanings. One could be year.”

Two visiting businessmen from Tokyo also guessed “year,” as did Naoshi Suzuki, pharmacist at Kyodo Drugs.

“The only reason I can see (for the error),” he said, “is they didn’t know what they were doing.”