Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American epic coming-of-age war adventure film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical 1984 novel of the same name. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers. The film follows Jamie "Jim" Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp, during the Second World War. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and it was released on December 25, 1987.

Plot
During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second World War, a British upper-middle-class schoolboy named Jamie Graham, enjoys a privileged life in the Shanghai International Settlement. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan begins occupying the settlement. As the Graham family evacuates the city, Jamie is separated from his parents in the ensuing chaos. Jamie returns to their house, assuming they will return. During his time, he is eventually captured, and taken to Soo Chow confinement camp, next to a captured Chinese airfield. Amidst the sickness and food shortages in the camp, Jim attempts to reconstruct his former life, all the while bringing spirit and dignity to those around him.

It's now 1945, nearing the end of the Pacific War. Despite the terror and poor living conditions of the camp, Jim survives by establishing a successful trading network—which even involves the camp's commander, Sergeant Nagata. Dr. Rawlins, the camp's British doctor, becomes a father figure and teacher to Jim, while bombing occurs around the camp a couple of days later, and they eventually evacuated the entire camp, but with no food, and many of the prisoners started to die from starvation, Jim was about to die, and he stays the night there with Mrs. Victor, and witnesses flashes from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki hundreds of miles away. A group of American army eventually drops down fool across China, Jim wanders back to the Suzhou camp. Along the way, he hears news of Japan's surrender and the end of the war, but his Japanese friend dies. The movie ends with Jim is found by American soldiers and placed in an orphanage, where he is reunited with his mother and father.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It is very faithful to the novel of the same name.
 * 2) Christian Bale gave absolutely amazing performance as Jamie "Jim" Graham. He would later appear in Christopher Nolan's trilogy The Dark Knight.
 * 3) It is one of the saddest comings of age war films ever made by Steven Spielberg.
 * 4) The setting of the 1940s era of Shanghai, and much of the eastern Republic of China and occupied China is well-done.
 * 5) Amazing cinematography.
 * 6) There are tons of great, and sad scenes, such as a scene where Jamie and his family were separated from his parents in the ensuing chaos, which is very shocking and sad at the same time.
 * 7) *Another scene where Jim witness an American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft. Overjoyed and climbs the ruins of a nearby pagoda to better watch the airstrike.
 * 8) Steven Spielberg still did an amazing job directing the movie. In addition, he brings 5,000 local extras that were used, some old enough to remember the Japanese occupation of Shanghai 40 years earlier, and Members of the People's Liberation Army played Japanese soldiers.
 * 9) Awesome soundtrack that was composed by the legendary John Williams, although there are Asian songs that were actually pretty good, which it fits well in the 1940s era.
 * 10) The ending scene is amazing, Jim finally reunited with his lost family, long after he was separated from his family.

Reception
The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, praising Christan's performances, it has a 75% rating with a "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average rating of 6.81/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "One of Steven Spielberg's most ambitious efforts of the 1980s, Empire of the Sun remains an underrated gem in the director's distinguished filmography." On Metacritic, it has a 62/100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert gave a mixed reaction, "Despite the emotional potential in the story, it didn't much move me. Maybe, like the kid, I decided that no world where you can play with airplanes can be all that bad." On his TV show with Gene Siskel, Ebert said that the film "is basically a good idea for a film that never gets off the ground." Siskel added, "I don't know what the film is about. It's so totally confused and taking things from different parts. On one hand, if it wants to say something about a child's-eye view of war, you got a movie made by John Boorman called Hope and Glory that was just released that is much better, and much more daring in showing the whimsy that children's view of war is. On the other hand, this film wants to hedge its bet and make it like an adventure film, so you've got like Indiana Jones with the John Malkovich character helping the little kid through all the fun of war. I don't know what Spielberg wanted to do."

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