Peter Smith was changed to African-American Webster ("Webb") Smith, Ishiguro became Ishihara, and Theresa became Jingo. Additionally, the identity of the murderer was changed from Ishiguro/Ishihara to Bob Richmond, and reflected in the solution to the film. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a commercial success, grossing over $107 million worldwide. Reception Reviews for the novel were widely mixed, owing mostly to the controversial subject matter. The New York Times's Christopher Lehmann-Haupt gave the novel a mixed review, saying, "The trouble with Rising Sun is obviously that as a serious discourse on why we should begin waging economic war against Japan, the book is far too entertaining. And as an entertainment, it is far too didactic." The Chicago Sun-Times wrote "Though Michael Crichton knew Rising Sun would ruffle feathers, the vehemence of the reaction came as a surprise. Challenges to his economic premise - that the United States is selling its future to Japan - failed to materialize. Instead, he recalls with obvious annoyance, American critics labelled him racist." In Crichton's Associated Press obituary his rebuttal to the criticism of Rising Sun was quoted, saying "because I'm always trying to deal with data, I went on a tour talking about it and gave a very careful argument, and their response came back, 'Well you say that but we know you're a racist.'" Furthermore, Crichton has gone on record as saying that he intended his novel to be a "wakeup call" to U.S. industry and that he is more critical of the United States than Japan. According to activist Guy Aoki "if that was his intention, he failed miserably," and "what you had instead was every character going on for pages about how unfair Japanese business practices are [...] the book was a very one-sided view of what the Japanese are doing, saying that there's reason to not trust them and not like them." See also Anti-Japanese sentiment Notes External links Rising Sun , the novel in Crichton's own words on his website. 1992 American novels Novels by Michael Crichton American novels adapted into films American crime novels Alfred A. Knopf books Neo-noir novels Novels set in Los Angeles Books with cover art by Chip Kidd Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States Japan in non-Japanese culture