More like setting sun, putting me to sleep.

More like setting sun, putting me to sleep.

You know that argument that goes along the lines of ‘it’s the character that’s saying racist things, not that we, the creators, are racist’? What we have here is a film that includes an insanely racist character (played by Harvey Keitel) and, while the film might not also promote those views, it sure does traffic in some wildly xenophobic traits. It is true that some of this might be attributable to “the times” (the early 1990s) and it’s also true that it seems director (and at least partial screenwriter—there were a lot of legal issues) Philip Kaufman toned down it’s source material (ie Michael Crichton’s novel, which I’m guessing has aged even more poorly than the film but have no intention of revisiting), but what’s left is pretty unforgivable.

Apparently conceived as a ‘warning’ for the US to be more vigilant in its economic relations with Japan, the story is a mystery that follows two mismatched cops (sorta) as they investigate what might be a murder (and then isn’t, and then is again) of a white woman, from the Midwest no less, during a corporate party at the recently opened, Japanese owned Natakomi Plaza (ok, not really, but ‘Die Hard’ from a few years prior seems a pretty obvious touchstone for this film). Along the way, the Black cop is schooled in Wikipedia-level Japanese culture, the white cop is cringingly introduced to ‘gang-bangers,’ and we, the audience, get shown all manner of (cue scare quotes) ‘weirdness,’ from Yakuza brothels and nyotaimori (or body sushi), to erotic asphyxia and primitive video editing. It’s all rather overly convinced of its own edgelordiness and, even if you are able to set one offensive trope aside, there’s always another lurking around the corner.

Whatever Crichton was trying to say, and whatever Kaufman kept and altered, this movie is a cultural and political mess that I dare say wouldn’t get made now and shouldn’t have been made then.

As for the central mystery, the film treats its resolution as such a throwaway that it furthers the idea that no one was really here to solve anything, just to perpetuate some bullshit.

You know that argument that goes along the lines of ‘it’s the character that’s saying racist things, not that we, the creators, are racist’? What we have here is a film that includes an insanely racist character (played by Harvey Keitel) and, while the film might not also promote those views, it sure does traffic in some wildly xenophobic traits. It is true that some of this might be attributable to “the times” (the early 1990s) and it’s also true that it seems director (and at least partial screenwriter—there were a lot of legal issues) Philip Kaufman toned down it’s source material (ie Michael Crichton’s novel, which I’m guessing has aged even more poorly than the film but have no intention of revisiting), but what’s left is pretty unforgivable.

Apparently conceived as a ‘warning’ for the US to be more vigilant in its economic relations with Japan, the story is a mystery that follows two mismatched cops (sorta) as they investigate what might be a murder (and then isn’t, and then is again) of a white woman, from the Midwest no less, during a corporate party at the recently opened, Japanese owned Natakomi Plaza (ok, not really, but ‘Die Hard’ from a few years prior seems a pretty obvious touchstone for this film). Along the way, the Black cop is schooled in Wikipedia-level Japanese culture, the white cop is cringingly introduced to ‘gang-bangers,’ and we, the audience, get shown all manner of (cue scare quotes) ‘weirdness,’ from Yakuza brothels and nyotaimori (or body sushi), to erotic asphyxia and primitive video editing. It’s all rather overly convinced of its own edgelordiness and, even if you are able to set one offensive trope aside, there’s always another lurking around the corner.

Whatever Crichton was trying to say, and whatever Kaufman kept and altered, this movie is a cultural and political mess that I dare say wouldn’t get made now and shouldn’t have been made then.

As for the central mystery, the film treats its resolution as such a throwaway that it furthers the idea that no one was really here to solve anything, just to perpetuate some bullshit.

nothing particularly stand out pretty mid

nothing particularly stand out pretty mid

Problematics aside, you get a stellar cast playing out political intrigue with a nice shot of Crichton techno-thriller injected. You could probably find a browser-based app to do the shoddy video editing hyped early in the movie - or just After Effects - but I’m always interested in digital video history and this is certainly a relic. The nationalized critique of corporate espionage is a little quaint given the target. Connery gets all the cheese and Snipes is wasted. I mean, Buscemi and a bunch of others are wasted, too.

Problematics aside, you get a stellar cast playing out political intrigue with a nice shot of Crichton techno-thriller injected. You could probably find a browser-based app to do the shoddy video editing hyped early in the movie - or just After Effects - but I’m always interested in digital video history and this is certainly a relic. The nationalized critique of corporate espionage is a little quaint given the target. Connery gets all the cheese and Snipes is wasted. I mean, Buscemi and a bunch of others are wasted, too.