Today's Rewind Wednesday is definitely a throwback! This is a film that came out during Wesley Snipes and Sean Connery's prime filming days. If you haven't guessed it with that clue it would be that of 1993 crime/mystery/thriller Rising Sun. I felt compelled to choose this one considering HBO and AMC kept showing it on tv I figured why not!
Just in case you don't know here is a little synopsis of the film:
During a party at the United States offices of a Japanese corporation, a professional escort is found dead, apparently after a violent sexual encounter. Police Detective Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and John Connor (Sean Connery), a former police Captain and expert on Japanese affairs, are sent to investigate. During the initial investigation, Smith believes the evidence indicates a sexual encounter and murder, however Connor insists there is a deeper involvement by the corporation. After a grueling investigation Connor receives a disc which contains the surveillance footage from the night of the murder. This later turns out to be a digitally altered video of the actual murder.
The alteration implicates Eddie (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), who is the son of a wealthy Japanese businessman. After recovering the original unaltered footage the video shows that the prostitute was only unconscious following rough sex with a powerful politician at the party, and that a company employee strangled her after the politician left. The head of the company was unaware of the crime and subsequent cover up, and exiled the perpetrator of the cover up to a desk job in Japan. The murderer himself runs away when he is identified, but is soon taken care of by Eddies Yakuza friends.
Rising Sun was one of those movies that you truly enjoyed from beginning to end because you would soak up so much, that it would leave you speechless. Since this was based on the book (same title) by Micheal Crichton I pretty much expected quality work. Not only that there was an amazing all-star cast including Sean Connery (who was also the executive producer), Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. that would lay down the foundation for this great film!
I will admit the movie is not always easy to understand but if you give it a couple of looks, which it's definitely worth doing, all the pieces finally fit and it's a good two hours of entertainment. 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." Great thriller with great characters.
It would end up spending six weeks in the Top 10 during the time that it was in theaters.
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