Rising Sun
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| Starring | Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes | |
| Written by | Michael Crichton | |
| Studio | 20th Century Fox | |
| Released | 1993 | |
| Runtime | 129 minutes | |
| IMDB Info | 0107969 on IMDb | |
| Buy it from | Amazon.com on VHS | |
| Buy it from | Amazon.com on DVD | |
| Buy the book from | Amazon.com | |
Rising Sun is a 1993 American buddy cop crime thriller film directed by Philip Kaufman, who also wrote the screenplay with Michael Crichton and Michael Backes. The film stars Sean Connery (who was also an executive producer), Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. It was based on Michael Crichton's 1992 novel of the same name.
Plot
During a commencement gala at the newly opened Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a Japanese keiretsu[Note 1], a call girl named Cheryl Lynn Austin (Tatjana Patitz), is found dead, apparently after a violent sexual encounter. Police Detectives Webster "Web" Smith (Wesley Snipes) and John Connor (Sean Connery), a former police captain and expert on Japanese affairs, are sent to act as liaison between the Japanese executives and the investigating officer, Smith's former partner Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel). During the initial investigation, Connor and Smith review surveillance camera footage, and realize that one of the security discs is missing.
Smith and Connor suspect Eddie Sakamura (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa}, Cheryl's boyfriend and agent of a Nakamoto rival, of killing her, and interrogate him at a house party (featuring a nude girl as a Nyotaimori platter). Sakamura promises to bring Connor something, and Connor reluctantly lets him go after confiscating his passport. Ishihara, a Nakamoto employee whom Connor had previously interrogated, delivers the missing disc, which clearly shows Sakamura killing Cheryl. Graham and Smith lead a SWAT raid on Sakamura's house. He tries to flee in a sports car, but crashes and is apparently killed.
Smith learns that Sakamura had attempted to contact him about the missing disc, so he and Connor take the disc to an expert, Jingo Asakuma (Tia Carrere), who reveals that the disc has been digitally altered to implicate Sakamura.
Nakamoto is in the midst of sensitive negotiations for the acquisition of an American semiconductor company, with Senator John Morton (Ray Wise), a guest at the party, abruptly changing his stance on a bill that would prevent the merger from going through. Suspecting his sudden shift is somehow related to the murder, Connor and Smith attempt to interview him at his campaign office, but without success. Upon returning to Smith's apartment, the duo find Sakamura alive and well. He reveals that he was being tailed that day by Tanaka, a Nakamoto security agent attempting to locate the original disc. Not wanting to be seen with Sakamura, Tanaka stole his sports car and committed suicide by crashing it. Sakamura gives Connor the original disc, but before he can leave, Lt. Graham arrives with Ishihara. Sakamura is killed fighting off Ishihara's men, and Smith is shot and left for dead, surviving only thanks to a bulletproof vest.
After being interrogated, Smith is put on paid leave due to an ongoing investigation of an earlier corruption charge. Regrouping with Connor and Jingo, the three view the original surveillance footage, which shows Senator Morton performing erotic asphyxiation on Cheryl. Falsely believing he killed her, Morton changes his position on the regulation bill to stay in Nakamoto's good graces. After leaving the boardroom, the footage shows another figure approaching and killing Cheryl by strangulation.
Hoping to draw the killer out, Connor and Smith fax Morton stills of the footage showing his involvement in the murder. Morton contacts Ishihara, revealing the executive to be in on the cover-up, and then Morton commits suicide. Connor, Smith, and Jingo interrupt the merger negotiations to show Nakamoto President Yoshida (Mako) the surveillance footage. Bob Richmond (Kevin Anderson), an American lawyer working for Nakamoto, reveals that he is the real killer and tries to run away, only to be killed by Eddie Sakamura's yakuza friends.
Yoshida maintains his and his colleagues innocence, quietly exiling Ishihara to a desk job back in Japan. Smith drives Jingo home, where she casts doubt on whether Richmond was really the murderer, or if he was simply taking the fall to protect someone higher up in the company.
The movie closes with Web Smith driving Jingo Asakuma back to her house. Asakuma enters her home, leaving the front dood ajar as an invitation to Smith to join her.
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- Review #1
Michael Crichton's "RISING SUN" (and that's both movie and book) is sheer brilliance. Unfortunately for the average American moviegoer, this is a flick too loaded with subtleties and hidden clues to appeal to someone who's used to more explosions, shootouts, and decisive final confrontations. You must pay close attention to every line of dialogue in order to keep up, and in this the average viewer is going to lose interest. Which is a pity, as you are kept guessing throughout --it's presented in such a way as to enable you to see the point of view of almost every character. Snipes and Connery work extremely well off each other, Harvey Keitel plods through his usual role, Cary Tagawa shines as the unfortunate fall guy stuck between East and West, Tia Carrere proves that she's MUCH more than mere 'Wayne's World' eye candy, and the film's few deviations from the novel do not detract from the suspense --they actually help to keep the plot moving.
Don't believe the reviews --this movie is most emphatically NOT racist Japan-bashing; in fact such a reaction is even anticipated within the narrative. An excellent treatise on the mindset of the Japanese corporate and how ill-equipped American culture/politics is in dealing with it. Not overly violent, but there is a considerable amount of sensuality and a disturbing murder scene that, of necessity, is replayed over and over throughout the film --definitely not for children.
- Film Review #2
Author Michael Crichton and director Philip Kaufman had a falling-out over the script for this film, based on Crichton's best-selling novel (which was controversial for its take on the Japanese invasion of American business in the early '90s). Kaufman ultimately won, doing an above-average job creating a murder mystery based on the culture clash between Los Angeles cops and Japanese multinational business interests. When a prostitute is murdered at the opening of a new L.A. headquarters for a Japanese company, detective Wesley Snipes is forced to call upon retired cop (and Japanophile) Sean Connery to help solve the murder. But he runs into obstruction from the Japanese, as well as a high-tech cover-up, while having to deal with anti-Japanese sentiments from people on his own team. Intriguing if overlong. --Marshall Fine
- Product Description
A Los Angeles special liaison officer (Wesley Snipes) is called in to investigate the murder of a call-girl in the boardroom of a Japanese corporation. Accompanied by a detective with unusual knowledge of the Japanese culture (Sean Connery), the two men must unravel the mystery behind the murder by entering an underground "shadow world" of futuristic technology, ancient ways and confusing loyalties.
- Book Review
A young American model is murdered in the corporate boardroom of Los Angeles's Nakomoto Tower on the new skyscraper's gala opening night. Murdered, that is, unless she was strangled while enjoying sadomasochistic sex that went too far. Nakomoto, a Japanese electronics giant, tries to hush up the embarrassing incident, setting in motion a murder investigation that serves Crichton ( Jurassic Park ) as the platform for a clever, tough-talking harangue on the dangers of Japanese economic competition and influence-peddling in the U.S. Divorced LAPD lieutenant Peter Smith, who has custody of his two-year-old daughter, and hard-boiled detective John Connor, who says things like "For a Japanese, consistent behavior is not possible," pursue the killer in a winding plot involving Japan's attempt to gain control of the U.S. computer industry. Although Crichton's didactic aims are often at cross-purposes with his storytelling, his entertaining, well-researched thriller cannot be easily dismissed as Japan-bashing because it raises important questions about that country's adversarial trade strategy and our inadequate response to it. He also provides a fascinating perspective on how he thinks the Japanese view Americans--as illiterate, childish, lazy people obsessed with TV, violence and aggressive litigation
See also [ Entrapment ]
A Personal Note from Robin
This movie (and the book) have several things that draw me in:
- Michael Crichton is one of my favorite authors
- Sean Connery is in the movie
- The plots contain a lot of anglo-japanese interaction and japanes language
- the murder involves erotic asphyxia
- Eddie Sakamura (played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) indulges in a bit of "nyotaimori" (eating sushi being served atop a live female) as the cops raid his house
- musical score includes an opening and a closing taiko sequence from San Francisco Taiko-Dojo
Notes
- ↑ A keiretsu (Japanese: 系列, literally system, series, grouping of enterprises, order of succession) is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community
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