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Empire of the Sun
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. There his noble spirit allows him to survive the hardships and even regard his imprisonment as an exciting adventure.
25 January 1948, London, England, UK
1 February 1923, Lausanne, Switzerland
6 May 1918, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
12 September 1951, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA
30 November 1965, New York City, New York, USA
5 June 1949, Tochigi, Japan
19 December 1962, Japan
1927, Hampstead, London, England, UK
13 December 1939, Hainan Island, China
19 May 1931, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
October 26, 2016
Now considered a trial run for the more moving, horrifying and involving Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg's drama, set in China during the Second World War, is a glossy and rather tame affair.
August 21, 2014
Spielberg knows how to tell a story and this one is worth telling.
May 17, 2009
Spielberg has dreamed of flying before, and this time he earns his wings.
October 26, 2016
[Empire of the Sun] has too much childish buoyancy to serve the disturbing historical events it's ostensibly based on.
April 07, 2013
The best mix in his directorial career between typical Spielbergian flourishes of audience-friendly spectacle and seriousness of intent.
October 26, 2016
The film's grave problem is a lack of central heating: We don't have a single character to warm up to.
August 23, 2016
Empire of the Sun is a breathtaking movie in its scope and energy. It's just that, true to its childlike quality, this film is just a little too over-anxious to get its point across.
June 02, 2008
No special use is made of the talents of Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, Joe Pantoliano and the others, so it is up to young English thesp Bale to engage the viewer's interest, which he does superbly.
October 26, 2016
This is derivative melodrama with Spielberg hedging his bets by ripping off his previous adventure films to lighten a story that cries out not to be turned into a comic book.
October 26, 2016
The pseudomystical vagueness that seems to be Spielberg's stock-in-trade stifles most of the particularity of the source.
October 26, 2016
Empire of the Sun wants very badly to be a great film, though as Steven Spielberg really ought to know by now, wishing doesn't make it so.