KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

leplatypus I just have read the fantastic novel in a week and i'm glad our dad picked the movie adaptation ! This karaoke bar opening may be disastrous but i discovered that Crichton has worked on the screenplay. So the movie looks really like the novel but it's more easy to follow, more polished, and above all, it offers new scenes but also new facts about the case and the characters as well! I don't know if Crichton wrote originally with Sean in mind but he's perfect here, as the old wisdom cunning sage (even if it's Giorgio(s suit is awful). However, Snipes has nothing for him : he looks a Jar-Jar, not bright, good for kicks only and that wasn't the liaison agent i followed in the novel.

seymourblack-1 Based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name, "Rising Sun" is an absorbing murder mystery that's spiced-up by some high-tech wizardry, culture clashes and the friction that develops between a couple of mismatched cops. The action takes place at the U.S. headquarters of the Japanese Nakamoto Corporation in L.A. where, what first appears to be a straightforward investigation into the death of a young woman, becomes complicated by the discovery of a conspiracy, a cover-up and a political dimension to some negotiations that the corporation is involved in with an American company called MicroCon. The presence of a number of possible suspects, a desire to protect the reputation of the Japanese business and a need to navigate some important cultural differences, then make the whole investigation rather challenging.After the dead body of blonde prostitute Cheryl Austin (Tatjana Patitz) is discovered lying on a boardroom table in the Nakamoto offices during a party hosted by the corporation, LAPD investigating officer Lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel) arrives on the scene and deduces that she was a "gasper" whose enjoyment of asphyxiation during sex had contributed to her death. Forensic evidence and film of the incident during which she died (which was captured on laser disk), then support the view that the killer was her current Japanese boyfriend Eddie Sakamura (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). Graham isn't able to wrap the case up immediately and so Special Services liaison officers Lieutenant Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and Captain John Connor (Sean Connery) who have more expertise in communicating with Japanese businessmen, are brought in to assist.Smith is a streetwise detective who resents having to team up with his semi-retired partner and Connor is an expert on all things Japanese who soon recognises that the circumstances surrounding the death of Cheryl Austin are not as simple as Lieutenant Graham had originally assumed. Through his experience of living in "the land of the rising sun", Connor had learned a great deal about Japanese culture and customs and uses this knowledge to good effect to interact smoothly with the people from the Nakamoto Corporation and to advance the police investigation far quicker than would otherwise have been possible.It soon emerges that the laser disk recording of the murder had been doctored and so further work then becomes necessary to access the original recording and to investigate whether there was any special significance to evidence of Austin's involvement with Senator John Morton (Ray Wise) who, for reasons of national security, had strongly opposed the negotiations that Nakamoto were conducting with MicroCon.A complicated plot, the complexities of its characters and the difficulties created by cultural differences, all add interest to what otherwise would have been a simple whodunit. "Rising Sun" is well-paced, visually strong and features some good performances, most notably from Snipes and Connery who work brilliantly together to make their difficult relationship a pleasure to watch.

The_Film_Cricket Michael Crichton is the king of details when comes to his books. His stories go down to the absolute detailed mechanics of their subject so that we arise knowing a little more about it then we did when we started - This is a guy who does his homework. Rising Sun was about eccentricities of a competitive Japanese conglomerate. He really got inside this world and gave you a feel for what it must be like on the inside.What aggravates me about 'Rising Sun' as a movie is that it seems to have been adapted by someone who learned by watching cop-buddy movies. It takes place in Los Angeles where a new Japanese conglomerate is just getting started. A woman is found dead in a conference room strangled to death and the killer seems to be the girl's lover Eddie Sakamura (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) who is a shrewd businessman with some ties in the criminal underworld. But in order to keep the new conglomerate from looking bad right from the start, they decide to call in a crime expert.Enter John Conner (Sean Connery), a worldly-wise detective who is able to figure things out just by observation the way Sherlock Holmes might have. His Watson is Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) one of those slick movie cops who constantly insults his partner and throws out a stream of glib one-liners because well – he's a black movie cop.This combination is what sets the movie on the wrong track. For most of the movie Connery uses his knowledge of Japanese culture and motives to gather information while Snipes stands by and tosses out a joke and gives the wrong information. Why was this necessary? Why does the sidekick have to be wrong all the time. Why isn't he able to counter Connery's information with his own knowledge? I could imagine a good sidekick being played by, say Giancarlo Giannini. You would have two very intelligent men working together instead of the approach of having Snipes say something stupid and Connery countering it.And what about the dead girl? There is never an attempt to give us much emotional interest in her. She is just a sexy model, killed in a kinky murder to be the movie's McGuffin. There is actually more time spent on the video of the murder then on the victim. A video disk was taken of the killer with the face blotted out and covered with the image of someone else, but who cares? This is a movie with so little emotional interest.

bkoganbing Michael Crichton's novel about murder and merger serves as the basis for a fine thriller of a film. For Sean Connery fans they will be pleased with what Connery does in this film.Wesley Snipes plays a Los Angeles homicide detective who has it insisted to him that he bring retired police captain Connery along with him to solve a murder committed in one of those glass tower buildings owned by a Japanese firm. The book and the film were made at a time it seemed that the Japanese were acquiring a lot of things American and were beating us at our capitalist game. Connery is quite a lover of Japanese culture and tradition in addition to possessing a keen eye for subtle nuances. His presence proves to be invaluable.The murder is that of a high priced mistress and it looks like she was strangled during some rough sex. In fact the Japanese who have a very different attitude toward privacy and tape everything and everyone have the room under video surveillance. The tape they supply shows a US Senator Ray Wise doing the deed. A lovely piece of blackmail since his vote in the Senate is a key one to get.But Connery doesn't buy it and eventually the truth is learned.Both Connery and Snipes are manipulated to a first solution and then to a correct one. The subtleties of the Oriental mind.Rising Sun is an OK thriller. It certainly gets a bit paranoiac about the Japanese taking over the country. Fears about that certainly proved to be premature.Cary-Hiroyki Tagawa as an up and coming Japanese yuppie businessman who has the solution and is part of it should be singled out for praise. As well as Harvey Keitel playing a Philistine American cop who symbolizes the ugly American in his own country. Good thing he had Snipes and Connery along. I'm agreeing with a lot of other reviewers who think Steve Buscemi was totally wasted in a role that proved superfluous to the film and went nowhere. I'm betting in the book he had a more central purpose to the plot.Sean Connery's world wide legion of fans should enjoy this.