Empire Of The Sun (Special Edition) > Reviews > A boys Innocence lost in a flash of light

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	A great adventure of human spirit
Disadvantages:	can be slightly tedious at times

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Empire of the Sun is a story focusing on young Jim Graham, an 11 year old born and raised in Shanghai during the inter-war years, he has a fondness for the Japanese and feels more closely akin to them rather than the British home nation, exampled by the comment to his father that he wished to join the Japanese air force. Jim's world is turned upside down prior to Christmas 1941 when the Japanese invade Shanghai forcing many residents to flee or be taken prisoner, he loses contact both with his father and then mother in the intervening melee and is forced to return to his parents house only to find it being stripped bare by the servants of his parents. While later fleeing a chinese youth he comes across an American called Basie who is there to make a quick buck from whatever he can, while attempting to further ransack houses they are captured by the Japanese and moved to an internment camp at Suchow where they help to build a Japanese airfield. The film then moves on to early 1945 when the war has visibly turned against the Japanese, Jim now a teenager has become more streetwise during these years and spends a large proportion of his time running errands for Basie and the other American prisoners, this later results in him crawling through a minefield while being hunted by the Japanese officer in charge where he would have been caught were it not for a young japanese pilot that Jim has befriended. The film then moves on to show the forced march to Nanking stadium where Jim see's the flash of the Atomic bomb over Nagasaki, he is subsequently rescued and returned to his parents at the end of the film