Sol Nascente

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.

You get the interesting team-up of Connery & Snipes in this Japanese infused tale that was one movie in a wave of similar entries in the 90's. However you can be forgiven if you find the story meandering on route to a simplistic ending or just too long in the tooth. At over two hours in length, there's only so much the cast of faces can do.

On the eve of a controversial merger between Japanese company Nakamoto and an American firm, a woman Cheryl (Tatjana Patitz) is murdered in an LA boardroom during a party. Lt. Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) is put on the case and he's told to get Cpt. John Conner (Sean Connery) a specialist in Japanese affairs to assist. At first, it's seems very simple. A sexual tryst gone wrong and the lady's boyfriend Eddie Sakamura (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) is guilty, but everything is not what it seems in this clash of cultures.

You get prominent appearances by Mako, Harvey Keitel, Ray Wise, Tia Carrere. Unfortunately none of them stand out as they're all one note functionary roles. Connery turns in a decent trip, but it's a character very much suited to him. That leaves Snipes to be the slightly out of his depth, ignorant American pawn. Tagawa gets the best role and has fun with it.

The conspiracy, the lies. Watching the duo chase down leads, talk to people is somewhat mundane. You get some fun moments like Snipes having to fight off a naked woman on his back and Connery quickly disarming a bodyguard though. Balance that with cliches like Web in the ghetto to get help or Connery knowing all the right people.

'Rising Sun' wants you to believe there's more going on here than there really is because they dress it up in some exotic sense of mystique. That's all surface level. Fans of Connery & Snipes will be the biggest audience giving this a go, but will agree it's neither man's best work.

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.

This movie is not always easy to understand but if you give it a couple of looks, which it is worthy of doing, all the pieces finally fit and it's a good two hours of entertainment.

This modern-day crime movie may have a lack of action compared to others of its genre but it never loses your attention. Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes and Harvey Keitel star, along with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako and Tia Carrere. This is a high-tech story (at least for 1993) as two cops try to figure out who murdered a woman. It's Japanese-big business-politics intrigue with surveillance cameras being the key to figuring out a murder.

Connery and Snipes complement each other as a "buddy" cop duo with Connery being mostly responsible for making this story interesting. The still-suave ex-James Bond plays the cool veteran and it's fun to watch him operate.

The only complaint I might have is the ending, a stupid romance-type story with Snipes and Carrere that was very post-climactic and not needed.