Rising Sun (1993)

just watch it!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Philip Kaufman's Rising Sun is a high profile murder mystery set atop lofty political echelons, but it's less about the murder itself and more doggedly focused on the culture clash between American and Japanese business factions, as well as the two detectives caught up in the whole hectic, East-scraps-West mess. A lot to cover in one film, but this one keeps its head afloat and then some, with a whip smart script based on a novel by Jurassic Park architect Michael Crichton that was libelled as 'Japan bashing' (this was in the 90's, imagine the snowflake storm it'd garner in our day). It apparently toned down some aspects, but either way, it's not only a searing detective story, but one set against a backdrop of fascinating urban and metropolitan anthropology. Sean Connery bites into one hell of a role as John Connor (not a T-1000 in sight asking his whereabouts, they're slacking), a veteran legend of a cop with deep ties to Japanese culture, having spent many years there, married to a Japanese woman as well. He's partnered with Web Smith (Wesley Snipes), lively enough to poke fun at Connor's guru-esque patronizing, but with enough of a head on his shoulders to adapt in waters that are anything but calm or familiar to him. Their case? On the eve of a giant mega deal between two corporations representing both soil, a mysterious prostitute is found murdered in a Japanese high rise. Laser disc footage may yield the killer's visage, and may not. A super racist LAPD detective (Harvey Keitel, volatile and riled up) is anything but help. The suspects? A sleazy US senator (Ray Wise), a Japanese mystery man (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) with one foot in business and the other, suggestively, in organized crime. The list goes on, and doubles back on itself multiple times. Not only is the investigation riveting, the buddy cop banter between Snipes and Connery, both funny and grounded, is just so engagingly well drawn, and tense inter-company espionage thrills throughout all the acts. The cast deepens, with fine work from Steve Buscemi, stern Daniel Von Bargen, Tamara Tunie, Stan Shaw, Mako, Kevin Anderson and gorgeous Tia Carerre as a quick witted tech expert who assists the dynamic duo in deciphering that pesky 90's laser disc, and the incriminating secrets therein. Not your garden variety police procedural, buddy cop flick or social commentary, but rather unique variations on all three, amalgamated into a film that demands patience and focus, but rewards with a great story.

Rising Sun is basically a buddy-cop movie paring the unlikely duo of Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. In the movie, both are cops who have a working relationship with the local Asian-American community. So, when a murder occurs during a party at the Nakamoto Company's American headquarters, they are called in to help with the investigation.First, I'm not going to go into detail on the racial / racist aspects of the film that you can read about in other posts. I'll just limit my comments to this – making the baddies in this movie Japanese does not automatically make it a racist film. I've read a number of comments that seem to indicate that if you make a group (whether it's Asian, African-American, Jewish, or whatever) the bad guys, then you're a racist. If you believe in this argument, then I suppose the only safe group that can play the bad guys are white dudes. Just like good guys, bad guys should and do come from every imaginable race or ethnic group. I suppose the filmmakers could have done a better job of presenting more Asians in a positive light, but the movie was already bloated enough without cowing to PC drivel.Anyway, as for Rising Sun, overall I'm going to call it about average. The film has a few nice action sequences, enjoyable performances from Connery and Snipes, and a plot with enough twists and turns (even though the real killer's identity is as obvious as the hand in front of your face) to keep me reasonably interested throughout. I guess my favorite bits were (1) the way Tia Carerra uncovered the altered video (interesting) and (2) watching Snipes use his marital arts skills near the end of the film (awesome). Also, similar to his Bond film, You Only Live Twice, I got a real kick out of Connery's alleged expertise in all things Japanese. That may be the most racist part of the film, but Connery is so hysterical I can't help but be entertained (Note: I'm laughing at Connery – not Japanese customs or people). As for what didn't work for me, like the last film I wrote about, Rising Sun is horribly bloated. At over two hours in length, it overstays its welcome by about 30 minutes. There are so many things that could have been cut without really affecting the final film. Why is Steve Busciei even in the movie? Cut his scenes and save a few minutes there. Why do we need more than one scene explaining how to bow? Cut out the others and you've saved several more minutes. Why is so much time spent with Connery and Snipes jibber-jabbering about nothing? Cut some of that out and save even more minutes. There are dozens of other examples I could cite where, with judicious editing, the movie could have been trimmed to a lean 90 minutes.In the end, this is another of those cases where the good and the bad pretty much balance out. I'm left with rating Rising Sun a 5/10.

Writer Michael Crichton wrote the part of Captain Connor with Sean Connery in mind and Connery absolutely shines in the role. Connery plays a police detective with an expertise in Japanese culture who's called in to assist on a murder case that took place at an LA high rise owned by a Japanese multinational corporation. Connery is partnered with a very American of detective, Wesley Snipes, which unfortunately gives the film a disappointingly conventional buddy-cop-film vibe that was wisely absent from Crichton's novel. Crichton (a film director himself) and "Rising Sun" director Philip Kaufman reportedly clashed over changes to the script Kaufman made regarding making Connor's partner black, which I'll side with Kaufman that it added an interesting new element in this clash of cultures murder mystery, but I'll side with Crichton in that it was badly done. The scene where Snipes take Connery to a black neighborhood and Captain Connor suddenly becomes the most uncomfortable whitest white person of all time, seemingly to have forgotten all his skills and control previously demonstrated up to that point. This could have been an interesting scene if it was done in a more subtle manner, but Connor is suddenly becoming a buffoon seemed out of place. It's as if Sherlock Holmes for a few scenes became Inspector Clouseau. I'll also side with Crichton on the change of murderer at the end of the film, which seemed completely unnecessary and also went against much of what the book and film had to say about the nature of culture and culture clashes. Despite these deficiencies, there is much to enjoy. Connery has one of the best roles of his career (minus the Inspector Clouseau scenes). Director Phillips Kaufman bring style and atmosphere, crafting a slick modern day noir, while also bringing a surprising amount of sensuality to a mainstream film, rivaling his more art-house of features like "Henry & June" and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Director of photography Michael Chapman also gets kudos for his moody photography. The film also features a strong supporting cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Kevin Anderson, Mako, Ray Wise, Stan Shaw, Tia Carrere, and Steve Buscemi. Overall, despite it's deficiencies, this is a stylish mystery that borders on erotic thriller and is centers around an interesting (though not so subtle) subtext about culture.

I have not seen this since it was first releases when I was a teenager. I remembered liking it, and I have a soft spot for old Sean Connery so gave it another go when it was on TV.Plot In A Paragraph: During a party at the United States offices of a Japanese corporation, a woman is found dead, apparently after a violent sexual encounter. Police Detectives 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 and the investigating officer, Smith's former partner Tom Graham (Harvey Kietel).Whilst it was not as good as I remember Sean Connery does what you would expect of him in his mentor role, and he does it well. Wesley Snipes was a solid reliable actor in the early to mid nineties, and here is no exception. Whilst Harvey Keitel rarely disappoints and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa does a fine job as Eddie Sakamura, a powerful man who may or may not be mixed up in it all. I always enjoy seeing Mako on screen. Tia Carrere has a small role, while Steve Buscemi has a smaller one as the aptly named Willy 'the Weasel' Wilhelm.My one complaint was an unnecessary romance between Snipes and Carrere at the end of the movie.