General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Rising Sun (1993 film)

Rising Sun is a 1993 American mystery thriller directed by Philip Kaufman and based on Michael Crichton's 1992 novel of the same name, in which two Los Angeles detectives investigate the murder of a woman in the high-rise offices of a Japanese corporation. It stars Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Kevin Anderson, and was released by 20th Century Fox on July 30, 1993.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Release	July 30, 1993, Los Angeles and New York openings; 20th Century Fox¹
Runtime and rating	129 minutes; rated R (nudity, explicit sex and violence, vulgar language)¹^•³
Director and writers	Philip Kaufman; screenplay by Kaufman, Michael Crichton, and Michael Backes, from Crichton's novel¹
Rights deal	Fox paid $1 million for the film rights several months before the novel's February 14, 1992 publication¹
Principal cast	Sean Connery (John Connor), Wesley Snipes (Web Smith), Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson¹^•²
Box office	$62.5 million gross in the United States⁴
Critical scores	32% on the Tomatometer (41 reviews); Metascore 56, mixed or average⁴^•⁵

Spoilers

Premise

During the black-tie opening celebration of the new Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a large Japanese conglomerate, a woman is found dead on the boardroom table. Detectives John Connor (Sean Connery) and Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) are assigned to the case. Connor has previously worked in Japan, but cultural differences hinder their progress until a security disc capturing the murder surfaces; examination shows the disc has been altered, and the detectives understand they face not only a homicide but also a cover-up.⁴^•¹

The story sets the murder investigation against the economic rivalry between the United States and Japan in the early 1990s, with Japanese executives apparently more concerned about their company's image during a multimillion-dollar business deal than with finding the killer.⁶ The Washington Post described the film as "essentially an education movie," with Connery's character teaching Snipes's the text and subtext of Japanese customs as they work.⁷

From novel to screenplay

The source novel was a publishing phenomenon: it reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for two weeks after its February 1992 publication, and it stirred a storm of controversy, with some readers calling it tough-minded and others calling it unmitigated Japan-bashing.²^•³ Twentieth Century Fox paid $1 million for the film rights several months before publication. Universal Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment also expressed interest but passed, because the "arguably xenophobic" subject matter was awkward for companies then owned by Japanese conglomerates. Fox executive Joe Roth defended the purchase, calling the book a "wake-up call" as the United States fell behind Japan in economic and technological competition.¹

Script battles. Crichton adapted his own novel with first-time screenwriter Michael Backes, but director Philip Kaufman requested several revisions and then demanded to rewrite the entire script himself. Crichton and Backes were removed from the project in November 1991, and David Mamet was hired to complete an uncredited "polish" of Kaufman's draft before production began.¹ Kaufman's edits changed the identity and ethnicity of the murderer in the final draft, a change widely reported before release as the film's "new villain."¹^•⁸ Crichton said the studio had not pressured him to soften the novel's disputed overtones.¹

Two casting decisions also departed from the book. Fox's Joe Roth credited himself with casting Wesley Snipes as Web Smith, a character written as Caucasian in the novel. Crichton, according to a Los Angeles Times report, had named the lead character John Connor because he always envisioned Sean Connery in the role.¹

Production ran from June 22 to October 3, 1992, with Peter Kaufman producing, Michael Chapman as cinematographer, and Dean Tavoularis as production designer.¹

Controversy and protests

Asian-American groups denounced the film on its opening day. At a July 30, 1993 news conference, Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, said the film portrays Japanese-American businessmen as "evil," "greedy," and "conniving," and warned that viewers might leave with negative views of Japanese-Americans that could contribute to hate crimes.⁶ Activists urged audiences to stay away, and asked Fox to run a disclaimer; the studio refused, with marketing president Andrea Jaffe stating that the film "is not a Japanese documentary nor is it a promotional film for the Japanese community," and the filmmakers considering a disclaimer an infringement on free speech.⁹^•¹⁰

Critics divided along different lines. The Christian Science Monitor's review found "a current of insensitivity that will do more to feed anti-Asian sentiments than to dispel them," while also objecting to the opening sex-and-violence murder scene.³ A Criterion column argued the film revived the "Yellow Peril" stereotype, tracing it from Fu Manchu through World War II and Vietnam-era imagery.¹¹ Defenders saw it differently: the Austin Chronicle's review contended that the debate over whether the film was racist missed how much it remained a classic hard-boiled detective story with the Japanese functioning as "an almost faceless evil."⁵

Reception and box office

The film received mixed reviews. It scored 32% on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer from 41 reviews and a Metascore of 56, labeled mixed or average.⁴^•⁵ Positive notices praised the two leads: the Washington Post called it "a thoroughly gratifying prestige thriller, thanks to riveting suspense and two brilliant stars,"⁷ and Rolling Stone found it "fiercely funny, exciting and provocative."⁵ Negative reviews targeted the plotting; the Los Angeles Times wrote that plot predictability, which the novel's political commentary had camouflaged, was one of the stones that sank the film.¹²

Despite the bad publicity, the film was a commercial success. TIME reported it had been "a decent-size ($55 million) hit" despite activists' calls for a boycott,⁹ and Rotten Tomatoes lists a United States gross of $62.5 million.⁴ Michael Crichton's own site records it as one of the Top 20 movies of 1993.²

In Japan

Japanese audiences reacted with more amusement than anger. A Los Angeles Times report from Tokyo in November 1993 found many viewers treating the whodunit as a comedy, noting stock characters such as white-faced geisha, bare-chested taiko drummers, and martial-arts performers that the film used to portray Japan, although all had become cultural rarities. The Japan Times singled out Connery's anglicized Japanese outburst, "I am verry verry okotta!", as destined for TV comedy fodder. In Tokyo's Ginza district, Disney's Aladdin, which opened the same day, outdrew Rising Sun by more than 3 to 1.¹³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026