Absolutely Fantastic

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It covers a historical event where government officials acted in a wise manner, and in a way that could badly damage their political standing.At the end of WWII the American people were very angry with Japan and the Japanese government for the sneak attack that killed 2000 Americans, all of the Americans killed in the war and atrocities committed by the Japanese against American POW's. Much of this anger was directed at Emperor Hirohito who was seen as the instigator of the war.General Douglas MacArthur was placed in charge of the occupation force in Japan and tasked with the job of finding and arresting war criminals. MacArthur knew what the execution of Hirohito would do to the Japanese people and desperately needed an excuse to spare him.The film follows the efforts of General Bonner Fellers who, under MacArthur's orders was placed in charge of this difficult job. Fellers though has another very personal mission: Discovering the fate of a young Japanese woman he had fallen in love with before the war and tried to protect after being placed in charge of strategic bombing missions against Japan by rerouting them away from where she lived.Several people share their stories with him of what happened during the war, including his girlfriend's uncle who had served in the military in the war.It is rare for government officials to act wisely and even more rare for film makers to produce such a fine work as Emperor!

Review: Although this movie did cover a very important period of American history, I did find it slightly boring and the investigation on who gave the order for Pearl Harbour seemed to go round and round in circles. Matthew Fox, who plays the lead, didn't really have a great script to work with so I can't blame his performance on his ability to act. I honestly did think that Tommy Lee Jones was going to play a bigger part in the film, but he is more of a cameo, even though his part is very important to the movie. It doesn't really pick up until the end when Tommy Lee Jones gets involved, and then it ends abruptly. In all, the director could have done much better with such a big concept. Average!Round-Up: The attention to detail throughout the movie wasn't bad and I'm glad that the director showed the situation from both points of view. Tommy Lee Jones does stand out from the rest and his performance and professionalism was noticed, but Matthew Fox just seemed one toned and pretty stiff. You do have to remember throughout the movie is that it is based on true events so it's more based on fact than entertainment. Some of the facts were interesting but the love story seemed to be added for the audience so they wouldn't get bored of the whole investigation. Personally I found it a bit weird that a movie with these actors didn't get a big distribution, but after watching the film I couldn't imagine watching it the cinema.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $4millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there war movies about a guy trying to find out if an emperor should get charged for starting Pearl Harbour. 3/10

EmperorJapan still had over six million soldiers under arms when their empire surrendered after the dropping of the second atomic bomb on the country – on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. This film details how the decision about the fate of emperor Hirohito was arrived at. Japan's cities and industrial base had been virtually bombed out of existence and Russia had invaded part of its empire as well.This film should resonate with South Africans as it is about the transition from fascism to democracy - and how certain leaders were saved to lead that democracy.The way in which the American troops apprehended the top Japanese leaders (like General Togo) in the course of one night made me think about how the Apartheid police used to descend simultaneously on our leadership in a short space of time and eviscerate our liberation movements swiftly and with Teutonic efficiency. I'll never forget fortuitously meeting Dr Farouk Meer outside Dormerton post office one morning after one his spells of detention. I mentioned to him that the South African Medical Council's approval of segregated medical facilities rendered that organisation unfit to do its job. He repeated what I said. There was a fasciculation on his face and his speech was a bit slurred. I felt for him.He told me that the Apartheid police were now not just targeting the leadership – they were going for the second and third tier of activists as well. The ubiquitous informer network kept people under tight surveillance. There was little one could say or do back then that they did not seem to know about with alarming alacrity – and they harassed you. The Americans held the view that the emperor of Japan had authorised the war against the American, Dutch, French and British possessions in Asia; these Western empires had conquered much of Asia including countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaya and Burma. Therefore he should be hanged as a criminal.There is a telling scene where a Japanese leader tells the American investigator, General Fellers, (played by Matthew Fox) who leads the team charged with deciding on the fate of the emperor that none of the US, British, French or Dutch leaders had been tried for bombarding, terrorising and conquering Asian countries which had then become part of their empires. The West had held onto their conquests by preventing the growth of democracy and by denying the conquered their human rights. The Japanese male says that the European empires' example was simply being emulated by his country. The American had no answer.Interwoven in this sensitively told, well thought-out and interesting story is a tale of love – the love that the investigator (who had written a pre-war report on the psychology of the Japanese soldier) had for a Japanese student whom he had met at an American university. One can deduce that the American was a senior member of US Military Intelligence. Japanese culture values very highly the ethic of hard work, a sense of honour and responsibility, order and cleanliness, a sense of duty, loyalty, respect, patriotism, dignity and protocol, even if in preserving these values, death might ensue. Japan was ruined after World War II and one would have expected that the country would take generations to recover, as happened with so many countries which had eventually won their freedom from the Free West. Perhaps some of the values that the Japanese hold dear helped them to finally reject the martial path that had led to disaster and to rebuild their people, their education system, their economy and their country into what it is today.At the end of World War II, the Allies were desperate to ensure that the defeated fascist powers would be rebuilt and again become bulwarks against the communists (but this time fettered bulwarks). The Reds were undermining the strangle-hold that the 'Free West' had on most of the planet and its conquered peoples; the West had in its clutches most of the world's resources from gold to diamonds to oil to platinum. At the end of the day, the victorious western European empires were not all that different from the blood-thirsty fascist empires that they had crushed. The Americans, headed by General MacArthur, (portrayed with flamboyant panache by Tommy Lee Jones) were in a very difficult place. It was amazing for me to see the American investigator walking alone through the rubble of bombed Japanese cities and among gaunt, haggard, hungry Japanese families.During the pre-war period in both Japan and Germany, those who had opposed the war-mongers were often bloodily murdered and the people of both countries were terrorised into submission; brainwashed and conquered populations became pawns in the grimy hands of the villainous dictators and the gangster elites who were determined to destroy and loot other countries and empires. Now the Japanese thugs stayed their blood-stained hands and did not seek revenge on the lone American. (He is, however, beaten up when he drinks alone in a Japanese bar).The movie demonstrates a remarkable degree of respect for the challenges faced by both the Japanese and the Americans. During the era of total European hegemony ie. the pre war period and even the era after that, the non Europeans were regarded by many Europeans as filthy, rather retarded, servile, nauseating, primitive apes: not quite human; not quite 'normal'; certainly not 'civilised' (what-ever that might mean). Many non whites were, and are, rather ashamed of who they are – and even more ashamed of the people whose colour and culture they happen to share. They appear to derive great pleasure from denigrating and dishonouring the non white peoples to whites whose respect they crave. They spend much of their time trying to escape their skins.I am so glad that I saw this film.

Billed as a movie about General Douglas MacArthur and WWII, it's not. It's about a lower level general investigating if the emperor is a war criminal, but most of his time is spent looking for his Japanese girlfriend. They make a list of suspects and try to talk to them, but most of them aren't talking. So he goes around and looks and sobs and sobs some more. As far as scenery, many of the buildings are the same, even when they're supposed to be in different towns, so they didn't spend too much on area views.It's more of a love story, but it fails at that, too. If you can see it for free, you'll get your money's worth.