YMMV / Rising Sun

• Hilarious in Hindsight: The book imagines Japan as an economic powerhouse that America can't possibly compete with. At the time of the publication, Japan was about to enter "the Lost Decade" of a heavy recession that destroyed its supposed economic superiority.
• Narm: Stateside, the book, and eventually movie, earned controversy about the negative portrayal of the Japanese. When released in Japan, however, the thriller wound up becoming an unintentional comedy, between all the stereotypes (women dressed as geishas, taiko drummers, bowing performed in an overacted way) and horrible pronunciation of Japanese words. One critic even snickered at the name "Hamaguri Corp.", as the word for “Clam" has a double meaning regarding female genitals.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Shortly after the publishing of the novel up to well after his death, Michael Crichton was accused of being racist against Japanese by critics, due to portraying Japan as an alien and unknowable force set to take over the US.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • In the film, Sam Lloyd (Ted from Scrubs) has a minor role.
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit viewers will recognize Tamara Tunie as Web's estranged wife.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The book is notorious for being an extremely blatant example of Japan Takes Over the World, due to their massive economic growth at the time making the nation seem poised to become a new superpower. This premise almost instantly dated itself when Japan's "economic growth" proved to be a bubble, which popped right as the book was released, beginning decades of economic decline and stagnation from which it is still struggling to fully recover from, making the novel's premise seem incredibly alarmist in retrospect.

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