Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun

  • Director: Steven Spielberg
  • Writer: Tom Stoppard,J.G. Ballard,Menno Meyjes
  • Countries of origin: United States, United Kingdom
  • Language: English, Japanese, Mandarin, Shanghainese
  • Release date: December 25, 1987
  • Runtime: 2h 33min
  • Also known as: Cesarstvo sonca
  • "Empire of the Sun" is a war movie directed by Steven Allan Spielberg and starring Christian Charles Philip Bale , John Malkovich , Miranda Jane Richardson and others.
    The film tells the story of a young boy, Jim, who was accidentally arrested in a concentration camp after the Japanese army invaded Shanghai in 1941, and grew up from an immature and innocent child to a stoic boy. It was released in the United States on December 9, 1987   .

    Details

    • Release date December 25, 1987
    • Filming locations Trebujena, Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain
    • Production companies Amblin Entertainment, Warner Bros.

    Box office

    Budget

    $35,000,000 (estimated)

    Gross US & Canada

    $22,238,696

    Opening weekend US & Canada

    $1,314,509

    Gross worldwide

    $22,238,696

    Movie reviews

     ( 105 ) Add reviews

    • By Marcia 2022-04-24 07:01:06

      blue sky

      This is a little boy's world. The so-called good and evil, right or wrong is only the conjecture of adults. For him, the war brought a life of displacement, and he stayed true to his roots while adapting and changing.

      He loves flying, loves the blue sky, and loves everyone in his life. However, no one loves him who has left his parents, and he wants to prove his worth knowing that he is being used. And everything is wrong with him, he is the victim, who is not? The boy who had the same...

    • By Kamryn 2022-04-24 07:01:06

      abominable war

      We have been educated in patriotism since childhood, and when we saw this history, we wanted to kill the little Japan. A movie is a movie. He describes the damage of war to human beings from another angle. Isn't that enough? There are already too many Chinese films about how Chinese people are bullied and not oppressed, can't we just accept a little other voice? I don't think the director's point of view is pro-Japanese, or that he can avoid the oppression of the Chinese people, but he...

    • By Ona 2022-04-23 07:02:01

      A young British boy's struggle history on the Chinese battlefield

      "Wait for me" but everything has been missed and only faced. How does Jim, honed by a separation, make us feel? Strength, faith, justice, dreams, intelligence, diligence, smoothness, and sophistication, there are countless words to describe the children who came out of the war environment. Let us children born after the birth of the movie learn how to survive and live in a harsh environment?
         Jim, the protagonist of the movie "Empire of the Sun", was originally a naive teenager,...

    • By Gertrude 2022-04-23 07:02:01

      The perspective is very objective, there is no great good or evil, it is all caused by war.

      I accidentally switched to the movie channel yesterday, and the movie was being broadcast. The reason why I didn't change the channel was because of the familiar scenery that appeared on the screen at the beginning, such as the Bund, Suzhou River, Sichuan Road and Bridge, etc. The house is very close, and I often walked around this area when I was a child. I am very familiar with it, and I miss it and feel it. . . But he found that he could no longer look away.
      Such a dreary topic is...

    • By Jennifer 2022-04-23 07:02:01

      us and him

      Yesterday, the day before yesterday, the day before yesterday, or possibly this afternoon, were wet crises. I was terrified and excitedly dreaded at the same time, wanting the flood to come. For me, the catastrophe of 1999 was completely wiped out by the park's green lawns, floral dresses, and glittery candies. Only in the news pictures of social classes and newspapers, we can see the grim and wet figures in bright red vests and army green shirts.

            In the middle of the film, the...

    User comments

      ( 91 ) Add comments

    • By Jesus 2023-09-28 07:58:07

      Bell's acting is really amazing, completely genius, the story is a bit long, like a bean friend said, when you think it's over, there are still forty minutes. ....

    • By Evie 2023-09-26 07:23:13

      I actually wasted two and a half hours watching a silly little bear kid die. The scene of the Japanese Air Force salutes the labor captive bear children is disgusting to me, what a glorious image of aggressors! If it wasn't for Spielberg's filming of Saving Private Ryan, I really doubt that he fed the dog in three...

    • By Nikita 2023-09-25 15:31:27

      [Exhibition at the China Film Archive] It was not seen as a 4K restored version in Shanghai, but it was fine to watch it in the archive. Christian Bale's acting skills as a teenager were so good. That serious look and eyes full of emotion have remained the same to this day. The images of British and American captives and Japanese are full. The opening and the middle of the film are magnificent and exciting, and two-thirds of the way begins to procrastinate until the end. This is a common...

    • By Hailee 2023-09-19 02:57:04

      The provenance always haunts us, we can't see clearly in this restless and painful...

    • By Alana 2023-09-06 17:10:12

      Bale has one star!!!!!!!!! I watched this film driven by curiosity about how Shanghai was in the anti-Japanese war under the lens of bale and foreigners; I really like the poster of this film, which subtly expresses a child in In the age of war, the desolation of the heart has been...

    Movie plot

    Jim was born in the home of a British businessman in Shanghai. He lived a life of worry-free food and clothing since he was a child. Jim has a wish to become a fighter pilot and fly to the sky with his beloved fighter plane. World War II broke out and the Japanese army occupied Shanghai. Although Jim Separated from his family, he was sent to a Japanese concentration camp, but here he saw the long-awaited "Zero" fighter. More than three...
    more about Empire of the Sun Movie plot

    Behind the scenes gags

    Christian Bale, who plays Jim, was selected from the 4000 candidates.
    Spielberg had planned to take a long shot depicting Jim standing on the roof and witnessing the bombing of an airport by a U.S. fighter plane. This very complicated shot could only be taken once, but Bell, who was overly nervous during the real shot, even forgot to perform, because most The blasting point has been used up, so Spielberg can only use Bell's multi-angle...
    more about Empire of the Sun Behind the scenes gags

    Shooting process

    "Empire of the Sun" was filmed at Elstree Studios in the United Kingdom, and was filmed in Shanghai and Spain. After a year of negotiations with Shanghai Film and China Film Studio in 1985, the main creative staff was allowed to start filming for three weeks in early March 1987. The Chinese government allowed the crew to change some characters to traditional Chinese, temporarily closed some blocks for filming, and used more than 5,000...
    more about Empire of the Sun Shooting process

    Evaluation action

    The visual experience and heroic spirit of adventure brought to the audience by "Empire of the Sun" are unforgettable (New York Times Review) . The film has an avant-garde and clever script by the playwright Tom Stoppard, and Spielberg made an extraordinary film based on Mr. Ballard’s extraordinary war experience (Wall Street Journal Review) . Christine Bell’s performance left a deep impression (J.G. Ballard review) .
    "Empire of the...
    more about Empire of the Sun Evaluation action

    Movie quotes

    • [last lines]

      Mary Graham: [upon finding her barely recognizable son] Jamie?... Jamie?... Jamie?

    • [first lines]

      Narrator: [title card] In 1941 China and Japan had been in a state of undeclared war for four years. A Japanese army of occupation was in control of much of the countryside and many towns and cities. In Shanghai thousands of Westerners, protected by the diplomatic security of the International Settlement, continued to live as they had lived since the British came here in the 19th century and built in the image of their own country... built banking houses, hotels, offices, churches and homes that might have been uprooted from Liverpool or Surrey. Now their time was running out. Outside Shanghai the Japanese dug in and waited... for Pearl Harbor.

    • Basie: Don't let me down kid you're an American now.

      Jim: [in a Brooklyn accent] Hey how'ya doin' Frank?