Review of The Sun (2005) by Kevin M — 25 Nov 2009

Hirohito may have plunged his country into ruin, sending millions to their deaths while he dicked around in his bunker studying hermit crabs and writing bad poetry, but can you blame him? After all, he's just a man-child with delusions of grandeur, born into a family of similar folks. He can't dress himself or plan out his daily routines, yet he must be treated as a supernatural deity given flesh. There's always an adjutant hovering around to record every last bit of drivel he babbles aloud, making sure to notate when the Emperor blames his military failure on a law passed in California in 1924, or gives any number of boring, rambling speeches with no point.

Aleksandr Sokurov captures the dying gasp of the once-magnificent Empire of Japan as a series of aesthetically cold two-character scenes taking place in dark rooms. It's an intelligent, low-key counterpoint to the hysterical "The Downfall", which relied too much on the off-kilter Bruno Ganz and endless scenes of Germans committing suicide. Here, all the horrors occur offscreen except for a surrealistic nightmare involving flying fish transforming Tokyo into a hellish firestorm. We examine the inherent evil in inaction, contrasted with the emotionally stunted existence of the ruling class.

Cinematography is reminiscent of "Letters from Iwo Jima", with its washed out, grainy, predominately grey color scheme. Scenes outside the Imperial Palace are masterful depictions of total ruin. Amazingly enough, the American characters (namely General MacArthur) aren't portrayed as heroic, though neither are they Ugly Westerners. "The Sun" is as much about cultural obsolescence and the rise of Capitalism as it is about war or mentally deficient emperors. Stirring stuff.