Emperor is a solid film based on the true story of the reconstruction of Japan after World War 2. The movie is directed by Peter Webber and stars Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones. Fox plays General Bonner Fellers, who was assigned by General MacArthur to covertly investigate the Emperor’s fate while the future of Japan hung in the balance. Fox has to determine if the Emperor should be punished for war crimes or saved. Fellers and MacArthur are in the tough spot of the world wanting the Emperor’s head and the Japanese looking at him as a living God. This is the story of the film.
Emperor is a solid film based on the true story of the reconstruction of Japan after World War 2. The movie is directed by Peter Webber and stars Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones. Fox plays General Bonner Fellers, who was assigned by General MacArthur to covertly investigate the Emperor’s fate while the future of Japan hung in the balance. Fox has to determine if the Emperor should be punished for war crimes or saved. Fellers and MacArthur are in the tough spot of the world wanting the Emperor’s head and the Japanese looking at him as a living God. This is the story of the film.
I loved Matthew Fox in Lost as the tormented doctor who can’t let go of the fact that he can’t save everyone, even if the ending was some nonsense about how they were already dead. I haven’t seen that kind of back-pedaling double talk since Obi-Wan sold Luke that story about Darth Vader not being his dad. Anyway… so playing a real life general who is caught between the facts and politics was right up Fox’s alley. Screenwriters David Klass and Vera Blasi use a love story to tell the cross-cultural story. It gives the film a nice backdrop by having Fellers search for a Japanese girl that he met while stationed in Tokyo before the war while searching for facts about Emperor Hirohito’s involvement.
The story of General Bonner Fellers has been largely overlooked, except by history buffs, so it is quite compelling. His knowledge of Japanese culture was critical in helping MacArthur and President Truman forge a peace out of war. The extensive research that Klass and Blasi did for this film is very evident as it is a historical crime investigation. How much was the Emperor involved? Was it his hand or was he a figurehead that was swept up in jingoistic fervor by the military power seekers? How instrumental was Hirohito in the surrender of Japan? All these questions are what drive Fellers and the film. The trickle-down pressure gives Fellers only a handful of days to get all his info to MacArthur, which kept me on board from the beginning.
The journey of Emperor began with producer Yoko Narahashi’s (The Last Samurai) interest in East/West interaction along with her grandfather Teizaburo Sekiya’s stories from when he served as a member of Hirohito’s Ministry of the Interior. Her grandfather’s stories of the post-war destruction and mistrust seem hard to believe as US-Japan became solid allies in a short amount of time. Emperor shows how those seeds were planted. Klass also worked as a schoolteacher in Japan. I like it when a film hires the right people because they want to get it right. People with knowledge of Japan and WWII history involved with a story of the Japanese Emperor, wow what an idea! I’m sorry Oliver Stone, but don’t make a football or any other sports film ever again!
This is a good film with good actors, a solid script and a great historical story. As Japan is still rebuilding from the horrible damage of the 2011 tsunami, I will quote producer Eugene Nomura, “This is a story about how Japan was rebuilt after the war, and Japan after the tsunami of 2011 in some ways looks similar to Japan in 1945. So I think it means a lot to tell this story right now about the country trying to rebuild and make it work for the right reasons.”
Graham Elwood