Rising Sun (1993)

The Blackmail of a Senator
Rising Sun concerns the struggle to win and at what expense. It's story begins with the news that Senator Morton will vote against the sale of Micro-Con to Nakamoto which effectively ends their negotiations with the company, Micro-Con, and allows them to look into another offer. Somebody is determined to change the Senator's mind by way of a blackmail scheme. Who was involved? Tanaka, the head of Security was running the office at the time of the party. Cheryl Austin, the murdered woman, was undoubtedly involved. She choose a place for sex with the Morton under a camera. Richmond was informed by Mr. N's aide at the party and killed her after she had finished. Who could have informed the aide but Tanaka. Wasn't somebody using the gizmo for close-ups? When Eddie left the party he went upstairs to check on the Senator and Cheryl. When he spotted them on the board room table under the camera did he conclude that Cheryl and Tanaka were double-crossing him? Eddie thought that he had the Senator in his pocket but the disc would surely change his vote the other way. Was it Tanaka's bad luck that Eddie appeared? Did he leave the party or go downstairs to the Security office to recover the tape? Was N's aide or Richmond aware of these developments? Was Cheryl's murder planned by them? Who was holding the original disc? And who really made the copy? And why was Connor given the Golf Club membership? Was he on the take? Webb Smith believed so. Or was it gratitude for his discretion on something that had gotten out of control? Connor could have done things and asked questions to the embarassment of many people and firms. Didn't Eddie plead with Connor not to arrest him and promise him the disc at the other party? There's far more to Rising Sun than a murder. I never cared for Wesley Snipes but I do in this film. He really did a fine job but was overshadowed by Sean Connery and a really fine cast. Both characters develop through the film. Phillip Kaufmann is a fine director. Too many people are looking for action adventure and fail to appreciate one of the better whodunits that I've seen in years.

One of Crichton's best novels becomes a below-par thriller
Rising Sun is a textbook example of how to take a sure-fire, can't lose property and cock it up completely. It's not just a matter of the producers controversially changing the nationality of the killer that makes Rising Sun such a appointment: where Michael Crichton's novel weaved a multi-stranded web, turning issues into clues and bombarding the reader with information and clues to keep you guessing, director Philip Kaufman simplifies and makes it all patently predictable. Subplots are poorly handled, often either never followed through or simply forgotten, and you don't even care that much about who done it, or why.

Of course, there is a difference between what makes a good book and what makes a good film, but before the rot set in Crichton didn't just write novels that read well, he wrote novels that play - turning one of his books into a film should be more a matter of editing than adapting. Yet, extraordinarily, the producers have either dropped or diluted everything that made the novel such a huge bestseller.

Crichton's strength was always his ability to put over big issue in a pulp format, but while Kaufman does tidy up his typically messy ending, hedrops most of the issues, patronisingly soft-pedalling the novel's economic/political debate, leaving just the pulp. It's rather like making The Third Man and ditching all that guff about cuckoo clocks and black marketeering, and getting rid of Orson for good measure. It may now be a gaijin who kills the girl, but it's Kaufman who kills the movie.

Kaufman has shown he can take mainstream material and imbue it with a greater significance and still turn out a terrific picture with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Right Stuff (and let's not forget, he was one of the creators of Indiana Jones), but perhaps he'd just spent too long making art movies in the interim. Here there's a snobbery to his direction, a contempt for his material that shines through in almost every frame - he thinks he's better than this, but still comes out looking like an amateur.

Where Crichton's novel was not the racist tract many claimed at the time (Crichton's criticism wass aimed directly at America's short-sighted business/political strategy), Kaufman's film comes perilously close to being just that. The xenophobia of the scene where Snipes sets some homeboys on the Japanese who are following him is an uncomfortable and tasteless exercise in ethnic stereotyping that doesn't belong in this movie.

The most astonishing lapse is in the appallingly acted and staged scene where Snipes is interrogated by his superiors. While this provides the novel with an effective framing device, only a complete idiot would include the American PR man for the Japanese corporation implicated in the conspiracy and a muckraking reporter among those present. Kaufman does. Not only is he hopeless at staging action, but scenes such as the suicide are handled with an ineptitude bordering on the infantile while some of the sexual overtones are feeble beyond belief - hey, don't forget that close-up of the next door neighbour's crotch so we know what Wesley's thinking, Phil! If anything, the absolute stinker of an epilogue is even worse, coming on like the warm wrap-up to a 70s cop show and spelling out Connery and Carrere's relationship just in case we're too thick to work it out for ourselves.

Much blame for this must attach itself to executive producer Sean Connery. Too many years of being denied his due as an actor and still, one suspects, trying to overcompensate for his years in Bondage have left him a sucker for a 'quality' director and a name writer, often with disastrous consequences (cf. A Good Man in Africa). Yet if Kaufman kills the movie, Connery gives it the kiss of life. Connery is never less than watchable, and he's certainly one of the few things worth watching here, whether barking Japanese in a Scottish accent or deliberately losing at golf. It's one of the best displays of pure star quality energising a moribund picture you're likely to see.

Wesley Snipes is wildly miscast in a role that didn't just have Andy Garcia's name on it but his address and a photo of his wife and kids as well. Instead we get a another of his typically one-note aggressiveone-size-fits all performances. Supporting performances are dubious at best, with Mako, Carey-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Stan Egi faring best, countered by Ray Wise and Kevin Anderson, both even phonier than their roles.

When Rising Sun concentrates on the plot mechanics, such as the manipulation of an incriminating recording of the murder, it's fine, but what should have been great is merely an average potboiler distinguished by Connery's presence. Rupert Murdoch, who took a strong personal interest in the picture, said that if they got it wrong they deserved a sound kick in the a**. If you happen to run into him, you might want to take him up on that.

Good but disappointing murder mystery
What works the best in Philip Kaufman's film version of the Michael Crichton novel is when we follow Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and John Connor (Sean Connery) as they chase both leads and suspects in the hopes of solving the murder of a beautiful American prostitute found dead on a boardroom table in a Japanese high rise presumably at the hands of the Japanese. Unfortunately the film gives us a lot more to try and solve which is why original script writers including Crichton and Michael Backes walked off the picture. They disapproved of the direction Kaufman was taking the film in and David Mamet was brought in to do an uncredited rewrite of the film. It is a fun game to try and figure out what is Mamet's contribution to the film in terms of colorful dialogue. There is one sure fire giveaway towards the end of the film when Web's boss the racist detective Graham (Harvey Keitel) starts referring to Web as "baby" a Mamet trademark. The film like the book seems to take an anti Japanese stance that is in relation to the dangers of doing business with and in the process giving access to both military and technological advancements. However the film is steeped in Japanese tradition in the form of the Conner character. He has been living in Japan for years and is well versed in their customs so he seems like a perfect accomplice for the Americans who are running into resistance from the Japanese when it comes to getting names of witnesses and getting their hands on the crucial surveillance video. This leads the plot into far too many directions. Both Connor and Smith are thought to be corrupt cops and we learn why people think that way in elaborate back stories. In the case of Smith's his Sergeant Graham is incriminated also yet turns up in the next scene as though he is above suspicion even though damning evidence proves the contrary, also characters who we think we see die often times aren't dead and will show up again about halfway through the film to perhaps die again, for real this time. There is a fair bit about technology since the surveillance video has multiple copies all of them doctored to some extent, there is a sleazy senator who is all too eager to do business with the Japanese even though his colleagues in Washington are hesitant to rush into things considering what they will be giving up in the bargain. The Connery Snipes teamwork is pretty enjoyable the whole way through even though Connery assumes the role of wise master and Snipes is his brash young student. At times it is condescending and frankly Connery has one too many speeches about the way of the Japanese and comparing business to war. The film is entertaining and stylish though, it benefits from some great performances in supporting players including Keitel, Tia Carrere, and a very strong performance from Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa. It kept me involved for the whole two plus hour running time even though I am not sure exactly what the hell happened it is still a good movie.