Customer Reviews

Rising Sun [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I first read the book just recently in 2004 and rented the DVD right after. My first Michael Critchon book, I must say I am impressed with the author's knowledge, he is a genius to write about so many topics in all his books.
The main difference i noticed was that in the book he talks much about business between America and Japan but in the film not much of that theme is really stressed or atleast the average viewer might not pick up on it. also in the book the main character (played by w. snipes in the movie)has more of his life story told and you get a sense of his life history more. but all in all all the actors in the movie do a terrific job.
the addition of martial arts fighting in the movie is a plus aswell. i would have liked to see more special features on the dvd though such as interviews from cast,etc.

The film adaptation of best selling author Michael Crichton's Rising Sun had its share of troubles...both on screen and off. Crichton had a falling out with director Philip Kaufman over some of the script changes. While I never read the book, and have nothing to compare the film to, I can't say that I wasn't all that thrilled with the film version anyway.

When a call girl is found to have been murdered in the boardroom of a Japanese corporation in Los Angeles, Lt. Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) is assigned to work the case. He soon realizes that his lack of knowledge about the culture is hurting the investigation. He is forced to team up with Captain John Connor, (Sean Connery) who is not only an expert on Japanese culture, but he's also spent time there as well.

As I say, even though Mr. Kaufman seems to have changed key elements of the story, in translating the book, I had other concerns on my mind. In order for "good cop--cop on the edge formula" to work--there has to be chemistry between the actors. Here, Connery and Snipes have very liitle. In fact, as a huge Connery fan, I was suprised at how bored he seemed. The mystery in the story, while having a few nice twists--doesn't sustain enough tension throughout. The usually great Harvey Keitel and Asian legend Mako are wasted in thankless roles. Rising sun is a film brimming with missed potential.

The only extra on the DVD is the movie's theatrical trailer. Given the problems I have with it, that's probably a good thing...What a disappointment. Maybe Kaufman should have stayed closer to the book??

First, I wanted to see this movie because of I heard Sean Connery played a mentor on Japanese customs to Wesley Snipes in a homicide investigation-and I thought "How interesting!", but after watching it, I felt the plot was disjointed, and choppy, and the dialogue was constipated.
The movie does not flow well at all. I have not read the book, but I have heard it is better than the movie (as usual), and I do like Chricton's work. Still, I found this movie slow, and wondering what the point was.

This move is simply amazing. Excellent mixture of action flick with a gangster edge.

For one thing, the movie is a pale adaptation of a fairly decent book into an intended "thriller" tinged with pseudo-racial slurs. Sadly, these clueless bromides about a Japan of yore are probably all mistaken. For instance, we are made to believe that all Japanese "keiretsu" companies have a barrage of video cameras and monitor their employees 24 hours; a "sempai" (boss) and "kohai" (subordinate) have only one unilateral way of dealing with each other; a man who has lived in Japan for 18 years somehow just has to know a mysteriously effective form of aikido that only requires the use of 2 fingers to knock a man unconscious in a second; and oh, he has to have a Japanese wife (who btw does not look Japanese at all, and this is explained by the fruitcake theorem that one of her parents was black); etc etc...ad infinitum ad nauseum.

But as though the cultural glitches were not misplaced enough, the acting in this plotless movie is torrid too. Sean Connery scrambles to come off as an expert in all things Japan, but his Japanese is nearly incomprehensible. Minor nits about Japan are excruciatingly explained every minute of the movie bogging down the pace of a thriller beyond any semblance of thrill.

But above all, the central event -- a much-ado-about-nothing strangling of a girl during a business conference -- is pretty much left hanging in mid-air. Why was it done? We do find out after wading through an hour and a half of farcical Japan-Culture-Versus-US-Culture morass about WHO did it (and this was anything but a surprise) but WHY it was done is still a mystery to be addressed in a part 2 that we can only hope never sees the light of the day.

In a nutshell, a suspense movie without any suspense, stereotypical misgivings about Japan (the country does admittedly have its quirks but not so bird-brained), a plethora of ill-timed and abysmal attempts at humor without inducing any real laughs, the tired cliche of a black-cop/white-cop combo that start out with mutual chagrin but end up with a deep reciprocal esteem, and a Wesley Snipes perpetually dressed in a flourescent orange shirt.

With a Jackie Chan + Chris Rock/Tucker combo a flaky adaptation such as this could have meant some entertainment, but Rising Sun ends up being a painfully ordinary affair and a tragic squandering of a great cast over what was quite an alright novel. If you really must see the Japan of 90s, you'd learn a lot more by reading the book, or by watching "Black Rain" (Michael Douglas) or "Mr. Baseball" (Tom Selleck). Both of which don't jumble up on the reality and have a real story up their sleeves.

I ended up buying this DVD soon after I read the book by Michael Crichton. It isnt a bad movie, in fact, it follows the book pretty closely, with a few different things here and there. But I just didint think that the movie was filmed that well. Plus I didnt like the fact that Snipes plays the main character, who is very different acting in the book.

The DVD version is nothing special. Yes, DVD's are easier to watch, but I would expect better features adn whatnot. There are non here. All and all, this is a movie to rent, not buy.

Despite all the spilled ink over whether or not this movie is racist or not, I have problems with the work from the technical point of view. Although I find it fairly solid in terms of acting ability, some areas of the script seemed aukward and forced. I also find this movie is weak based on it's storyline and pacing. Most of the plot "twists" are very predictable. The sub-plots appear important to the major storyline, but are hardly developed at all. Furthurmore, the movie is supposedly told in flashbacks, but these flashbacks are neither resolved nor introduced. They simply happen, almost as if the main character was bored with that was going on and decided to day dream. On the other hand, the acting is fairly solid and Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes do their best with what is a decent (if at times shallow) script.
I like to think of myself as fairly aware of Japanese customs are courtesies and general, and although I would agree that some people might take offence to the portrayal of major Japanese corporations in America, it all seems academic in the post-Asian recession world of today. I certainly do not beleive that some evil conglomerate of hollywood producers set out to produce a racist film that deliberatly offended major portions of the American public. This would be simply put, stupid. I base my ratings on the quality of the movie and not racial considerations, although if you are easily offended and predisposed to interpret certain directorial decisions as conspiratorial, you might need to look for another film.

Watching this movie made me cringe. It was the most offensive film I have ever seen in my life! I cannot believe that some people actually enjoy this movie. Poor Westly Snipes. He was only cast in it to make it seem like it wasn't a RACIST movie. And the representation of the Japanese culture was so inacurate. Most of the Asian cast coudn't even speak Japanese! Also ALL of the female characters were blatantly degrading! I wish that Hollywood will open up their minds and portray people of color and women as PEOPLE and not just sex objects and villains.

Five cheers for this movie for having the guts to expose the Japanese elite as they truly are. Japanese police and Ministry of Justice are liars, cheats, thieves and recreational murders. The Japanese people are subservient to the upper class that demands total obedience and silence.

"Rising Sun" is premised on the idea that Asian people are taking over the United States and doing so by having white people murdered. Given the paucity of prominent Asian people in the U.S. media, this premise is unduly alarmist. Hollywood still needs to do more to acknowledge Asian people as a positive, integral presence in the United States -- rather than as predatory aliens who get ahead at the expense of others. As was publicized when the film was released in 1993, the movie changed the murderer's ethnicity to non-Japanese, but this is merely cosmetic because the white female murder victim is still deliberately killed to further the business interests of the Japanese -- the murderer is still acting on behalf of the Japanese corporation. Moreover, the film's epilogue leaves the murderer's identity in doubt. So, the film version of "Rising Sun" tries to have it both ways.

I've grown very tired of listening to all of the excuses made for "Rising Sun": how it's not racist, how the non-Asian characters are just as bad as the Asian characters. This is nonsense. The film clearly capitalizes on the (presumably non-Asian) viewer's fears and misunderstandings of Asian people. All of the bad guys in the movie are either Japanese, working for the Japanese, or blackmailed by the Japanese. In other words, the Japanese are presented as being the cause of all the villainy in the story. Although some non-Asian characters are given moral frailties, those personality flaws are presented as part of their overall humanity. By contrast, the evil Japanese characters are kept at a distance, so we are encouraged to see their character flaws as inherent in their ethnicity.

And in an effort to add "balance" to the story, "Rising Sun" attempts to show two "positive" Japanese characters, but they're just stock figures: the Asian supporting character who proves how "good" he is by sacrificing his life so that the non-Asian lead characters can live (message: Asian life isn't as valuable as non-Asian life), and the Asian female love interest who all but renounces her Asian culture and takes a non-Asian boyfriend. In light of all this, I believe that the filmmakers cast African-American Wesley Snipes in the movie (his character was ostensibly white in the book) primarily to shield themselves from charges of racism. After all, at the time the film was made, the L.A.P.D. unit that the Snipes character worked for had no black officers -- in fact, it was primarily Asian-American. Given its problematic premise, the only way the film could have added balance would have been to make one of the two lead detectives either Japanese or Japanese-American.

This is the best way to sum up how objectionable "Rising Sun" is: Just imagine what the film would be like if the Japanese characters were instead Jewish. When Jewish people are misrepresented as getting ahead in non-Jewish society by having Gentiles murdered, Jewish communities throughout the world have a name for that: they call it "blood libel." The myth of Jewish people ritualistically and systematically murdering non-Jews has helped to subjugate and oppress Jewish people in the Western world for centuries. In other words, blood libel has been a strong instrument of anti-Semitsm. And we all know what enormities anti-Semitism can lead to. "Rising Sun" is just another paranoid blood-libel fantasy, only it substitutes the Japanese into the position of scapegoat historically occupied by the Jews.

So, my question for the fans of "Rising Sun" is this: If it is anti-Semitic to blood-libel Jewish people -- and I agree that it is -- why isn't it racist to blood-libel Asian people?