Sol naciente

A woman is strangled to death while having sex in a Japaneses' corporation building. Lt. Webster Smith (Wesley Snipes) and Japan expert Captain John Connor (Sean Connery) are assigned to solve it. All the evidence points to her Japanese boyfriend but there's more to this than meets the eye.

Michael Crichtons novel was a frightening and powerful story about how it seemed (at the time) that Japanese corporations were taking over everything. As an adaptation to that this is a joke. Smith is made black for no good reason, the anti-Japanese slant was toned down a lot, there was no romantic interest between Snipes and Tia Carrere as is shown in this movie and the identity of the killer was completely changed! It really destroyed the book. But, if you ignore the book, this is OK on its own terms.

It's well done and written and there's some good acting by Connery, Ray Wise (as a slimy senator), Harvey Keitel (as a cop) and Steve Buscemi (still not sure what he was). But the story is way too convoluted, goes on far too long and has an ending which is more than confusing. Also Connery and Snipes do not work well together. There's no spark between them--they seem to be acting in different movies. There's also plenty of pointless female nudity. This lessens what could have been a good strong movie. So it's an OK thriller. Worth catching if you're a Connery fan. The book is much better.

During a high level executive meeting between a Japanese corporation and an US weapons contractor a young woman is found murdered. Due to his connections Captain John Connor is sent to lead the investigation with Lt Web Smith. The investigation is immediately hindered by the Japanese culture, the shadowy business figures and political pressures, however before long Connor and Smith are presented with a cctv disk that shows the murder being carried out by a known suspect. When the suspect dies in a chase the investigation seems over but a closer investigation of the evidence shows that the case is far from closed.

Not being a real big fan of Michael Crichton, I wasn't sure how I'd like this film – I'm not a big traveler and don't buy my books in the airport when I do travel! It was apt then, that I wasn't overly taken by the plot here and felt that its pace was more responsible for it being an enjoyable thriller than any great skill in the writing. In its essence the glossy story takes in technology, big business, Japanese cool and political goings-on – all these and other things combining to mean that it moves well and is consistently busy. This is not to suggest that it all fits together because it doesn't; the plot has holes and lose strands within it that distract if you think too much about it – happily its pace and revelations did not give me too long to linger over these and I managed to enjoy it, the problems being forgotten in all the gloss.

On top of this gloss is piled a cast that is worth seeing no matter what they are doing together, and their presence and ability further cover for a plot that doesn't always serve its many characters as well as they deserve. Connery has fun in the sort of role he seems to greatly favour now – distinguished, wise men of age who can still dish it out if need be. He is easy to watch and only at times does he feel like he's forcing it (like when he suddenly shouts). Snipes does not look as confident but that may be because his 'look' has dated here and changed since 1993. However he is still good and has his moments despite being given a rather secondary role to Connery's. It the support cast that surprised me though – so many well known faces in supporting or minor roles. Keitel is very good, playing an interesting character that goes nowhere but is still interesting and well delivered; Tagawa is gifted a fuller role than he often gets and does well with it. Wise is OK but he forces it and didn't convince me as much as I would have liked – still did the job asked of him though. People like Mako, Carrere, von Bargen and Buscemi all add depth and make the film feel fuller than it is even with some small (and perhaps unnecessary?) characters.

Overall this is a slick and enjoyable film even if it is as much style and pace as it is substance. The plot doesn't totally fit together but its mix of techno-conspiracy, political plotting, sex and intrigue all keep it moving along enjoyably enough and the impressive and rather charismatic cast only help to make it feel all the slicker. Worth a watch even if some may find it a little inconsequential in regards some bits of plotting.

Michael Crichton's Rising Sun is an extensive, dense, unpredictable mess. The actors have a lot of fun and the story is a splurge of entertainment, but it's not paying enough attention to a couple of things. One of them is what its focus is. Is the film about the murder, the two men solving the murder, the clash of American and Japanese cultures, or what? The other thing the film forgets could be a drawback of the first thing. It's that it doesn't tie up all its loose ends. At the end, there are strands left with no ending, even a mysterious ambiguous one. It just ends because it feels the pace of the film requires it to fade out at that particular point.

The film is not bad, mostly because it's far from boring. In fact, there are many scenes of dialogue, despite a few corny scenes of dialogue, that are subtly interesting. We don't quite understand why the exchanges are interesting until later, when we realize that the characters are so deeply contemplated that the scene felt as real as the room you're sitting in. But maybe I'm giving the film too much credit for simply being a load of fun for Michael Crichton to write. After all, he wrote and directed one of the greatest heist films ever made, The Great Train Robbery, also with Sean Connery.

Sean Connery, of course, is the highlight of the film, because there's hardly a way he cannot be. Despite his irrepressible suavity, he does not play himself. He plays a resentful, inflexible, self-indulgent veteran cop, and we are supposed to like Wesley Snipes more because the film centers, well, seems to want to center around his character and also we're given more backstory and information on him. However, we don't like Snipes more than him. Connery may play a stubborn old jerk, but I'd rather one of those than a pompous, intolerant, overpround young jerk like Snipes can hardly help but play.

I cannot reach a verdict on this film. How can I? There are so many things to enjoy at the same time they are hazardous to the film's health.

The background of the film is the American-Japonese business competition in L.A. where a cop (Wesley Snipes) accused by corruption teams up with old man (Sean Connery) , expert on Japanese world . They're investigating a killing case filmed in videotape recording and located at an important corporation run by powerful manager (Mako)and it implicates a senator (Ray Wise) . The homicide is committed on a boardroom table while a beautiful prostitute is strangled when having sex with her lover , being prime suspect a Japanese executive (Gary -Hiroyuki Tagawa). The identity of the murderer is taken by a security camera on a missing disk . Meantime , another tough police( Harvey Keitel) is also investigating and they're helped by a gorgeous video expert (Tia Carrere). Soon discover on the final breaking point that even the truth can lie .

The tale mingles suspense , thriller , mystery , quick action , buddy movie and is quite entertaining . However , the complicated script contains some flaws and gaps , originating fails on credibility but gets its nice moments here and there . Based on controversial novel by Michael Crichton , it is adapted by Philip Kaufman and Crichton, blending business, Japanese customs, high technology and international politics, turning out some confusing and silly . For that reason, the screenplay was rewritten several times, focusing more the killing suspense and relying heavily on relationship between two leads and the differences US-Japan . Michael Crichton, author of the book and co-author of the screenplay, wrote the part of Connor with Sean Connery in mind. Writers Michael Crichton and Michael Backes quit the project largely over disagreement with director Philip Kaufman that one of the lead characters should be changed into an African-American . Evocative Japanese music score by Takemitsu (Kurosawa's usual musician) and appropriate cinematography with stylized camera techniques by Michael Chapman . This one gets acceptable direction by Philip Kaufman (Quills, Right stuff, Body snatchers) . The film will appeal to Wesley Snipes and Sean Connery fans.

Scenes of cowboys on horseback, and Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In"... reassuring cultural markers which quickly dissolve as we find ourselves in the steely 19990's in a Los Angeles that has been snaffled by the Japanese. The western and the music are mere karaoke images. Americans had better learn how to bow, because their masters are moving in.

"Rising Sun" is a sophisticated thriller which flips neatly between fear of the sinister Japanese (electronic surveillance, big business buyouts, Yakuza) and a deep understanding of, and reverence for, Japanese culture. Wesley Snipes plays Web Smith, a lieutenant in the LAPD assigned to investigate a murder on the Los Angeles premises of a Japanese corporation. He has Captain John Connor attached to him (Sean Connery), an older man who is believed to have 'gone native' and sold his soul to the Japanese.

At every turn, American short-sightedness is losing out to the Japanese hardball players. One of the film's morals is, if we don't like the way they are buying up our assets, we have no business selling them in the first place. Japanese strength comes from the social discipline and immense intellectual vigour of their way of life. "We may come from a fragmented MTV-rap-video culture," says Conner, "but they do not."

Conner has studied the eastern way and is respected by the Japanese for his grace and learning. He guides Web Smith along the path of enlightenment in the course of solving the murder mystery. They adopt the traditional sampai-kohai relationship, the tutelage of a wise elder from which a worthy young man learns.

In this story of cutting-edge video fakery, the film exploits images intelligently. We see reflections of Web and Jingo on the TV monitor as they analyse the 'ghost'. Connor effects a clever 'look-back' on the lab's video camera, hinting at hidden permutations in the characters' relationships. Time after time, we are led persuasively down a line of reasoning, only to find that it is a chimera. As Connor says, "When something looks too good to be true, then it's not true."

There are some weaknesses in the film's structure. 'The Weasel', the journalist tracking Web, is badly misconceived. His place in the story is negligible and his dramatic possibilities are abandoned almost as soon as he is introduced. The reliance of Web on his old 'brothers' to intimidate the Japanese pursuers is lame and patronising, with its 'boyz'n'the hood' silliness. To describe these 'rough neighbourhoods' as 'America's last great advantage' is patent hogwash. The corrupt senator is the tired stock-in-trade of these thrillers, and fails to convince. The reaction of Morton's wife to the fax transmissions is utterly unrealistic and melodramatic. That two LAPD cops should beat up half a dozen Japanese thugs using karate is frankly insulting, even to Japanese thugs.

The performance of Sean Connery is very impressive. He plays Connor with the clear intelligence and the confidence in his own powers which such a man would surely possess. He alone understands both cultures, and therefore he alone can solve the riddle. Because Connery is convincing, the film is a success.