Synopsis
As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.
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Cast
- Matthew FoxGeneral Bonner Fellers
- Tommy Lee JonesGeneral Douglas MacArthur
- Eriko HatsuneAya Shimada
- Masayoshi HanedaTakahashi
- Kaori MomoiMitsuko Kajima
- Toshiyuki NishidaGeneral Kajima
- Colin MoyGeneral Richter
- Masatō IbuKoichi Kido
- Isao NatsuyagiTeizaburo Sekiya
- Takatarô KataokaEmperor Hirohito
Recommendations
- 75
Observer
The real star of the film is the magnetic, forceful and charismatic Matthew Fox, who steals the entire film as easily as if he were pitching a softball. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
As is the case with most of the elements in Emperor, the cliches are relatively few and spaced apart, and the tearjerking and profound moments are authentic and well-earned. - 67
Tampa Bay Times
Emperor is also one of those movies in which the most intriguing occurrences are revealed by "what-happened-to . . ." title cards at the finale. - 67
Entertainment Weekly
Emperor explores the delicate postwar dance of revenge, justice, and realpolitik, yet its focus on the issue of Hirohito's guilt or innocence (did he order the attack on Pearl Harbor? Or did he, in fact, oppose the Japanese military machine?) - 63
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Tommy Lee Jones gives us a saltier version of MacArthur than the image-conscious general ever let on to. - 50
The Playlist
The movie is never without forward momentum, it's just too bad when just when it's ready to go to interesting places, we jump back to Bonner and Aya's pedestrian romance. - 50
Film.com
Emperor may not be the most dazzling of history lessons, but it never treats the past as a dusty, deserted place. - 40
Time Out
Director Peter Webber, who once mined social unease from the painterly "Girl with a Pearl Earring," is out of his depth; this is a movie in desperate need of a no-nonsense Howard Hawks.
