Flopping Sun

Flopping Sun

Flopping Sun.
How to turn a great book into a bad movie.

There have been many book to movie conversions, yet Rising Sun by Michael Crichton was one that had
gone horribly wrong. Rising Sun, in addition to being a gripping mystery/thriller, functioned as a scathing
attack on American apathy to Japanese economic aggression. In fact, in his afterword to the novel, Crichton
says, "The Japanese are not our saviors. They are our competitors. We should not forget it." Statements like
these earned Rising Sun the dubious distinction of being a Japan-bashing novel. The movie version of this
book tried to stay away from that type of publicity. With it came a horrible adaptation of a wonderful book.

First some background information. In an empty conference room on the forty-sixth floor of Los Angeles'
Nakatomo Tower, the dead body of a beautiful young call girl has been found sprawled out on a table.
When Lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel), the racist cop in charge, has trouble obtaining the full
cooperation of the Nakatomo execs, Special Services liaison Lieutenant Web Smith (Wesley Snipes), who
was renamed from Peter Smith in the book, is summoned for help. Along the way, Smith receives a call on
the car phone telling him to pick up Captain John Connor (Sean Connery), a man known to be well-versed
in Japanese traditions and, in the opinion of some, a Japanese sympathizer. Nothing about this investigation
is straightforward, but as more is revealed about...

Flopping Sun

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