Empire of the Sun
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| Author | J. G. Ballard |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Gollancz |
| Released | 13 September 1984 |
| Empire of the Sun | |
|---|---|
| Image:Empire Of The Sun.jpg Empire of the Sun movie poster | |
| Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
| Produced by | Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall Steven Spielberg |
| Written by | J. G. Ballard (novel) Tom Stoppard Menno Meyjes |
| Starring | Christian Bale John Malkovich Miranda Richardson Nigel Havers |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Allen Daviau |
| Editing by | Michael Kahn |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | December 9, 1987 |
| Running time | 154 min. |
| Language | English/Japanese/Mandarin |
| Budget | $38,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
- This article is about the 1984 novel and its 1987 film adaptation. Empire of the Sun is a name used for the Empire of Japan--Japan is known as the Land of the Rising Sun, and the Rising Sun is the emblem on the Japanese flag--seen repeatedly throughout the movie.
Empire of the Sun is a 1984 novel by J. G. Ballard. Though it is essentially fiction, it draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II, recounting the story of a young English boy, Jim Graham (Ballard's own first names are James Graham), who is living with his parents in Shanghai just before its capture by the Japanese. The novel was developed from an earlier short story, "The Dead Time", published in the anthology Myths of the Near Future. Ballard later wrote a sequel to the book, called The Kindness of Women.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
- Invasion
In Shanghai, China, 1941, on the eve of the Japanese invasion of the foreign quarters of Shanghai (the city itself fell in December 1937), a young boy, Jim “Jamie” Graham, lives a privileged life. His father is a rich British businessman who owns a large house on the outskirts of Shanghai. Jamie attends an exclusive prep school where he sings lead in the choir and is generally sheltered from the Chinese culture and people that surround him daily. Jamie is also rude to the servants his father employs in their house.
Jamie, his mother and his father all attend a costume ball at the estate of friends. While playing with a toy glider, Jamie, who is particularly fascinated with aircraft, encounters a unit of Japanese soldiers near the estate. Jamie comments that the soldiers all appear to be “waiting for something to happen.” The “something” they await is the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The invasion of Shanghai occurs within a few days of the party, while Jamie’s father has his family housed in a downtown hotel. The evacuation of the city begins immediately. Forced from their limousine, the Graham family find themselves crushed in amongst the crowds fleeing the Japanese Army. Jamie and his mother are forcibly separated from his father and within moments Jamie and his mother are forced apart by the crowds. His mother yells for him to run home as she is carried away.
- Separated
Jamie walks home and finds his house deserted. There is also a sign on the front door stating that the house is property of the Emperor of Japan. He also discovers signs of a struggle in his mother’s room. Jamie also finds two of his parent’s servants taking furniture from the house. Asking what they are doing, he is astonished when one of them does not answer but instead slaps him with impunity.
Jamie lives in the house for an undetermined length of time, waiting his parent’s return. After what must be several days (indicated by the dropping level of water in the swimming pool) he ventures into Shanghai to find it occupied by the Japanese. Wishing to surrender to a group of soldiers for some food, he is laughed at. He is chased through the city’s back alleys by an orphaned Chinese boy trying to loot him for his clothes. As he tries to escape, he is nearly run over by a truck driven by an American, Frank. Frank takes Jamie to his partner, Basie, a self-centered American hiding out in an abandoned freighter in the harbor. He deftly steals several of Jamie’s personal belongings and assumes that the boy’s parents were captured with the other British who were unable to flee Shanghai. Basie gives Jamie a new nickname, “Jim.”
- Captured
Basie and Frank try to rid themselves of Jim, offering to sell him to a Chinese man who would use him for manual labor. When Basie and Frank decide to abandon Jim to the streets, Jim tells them that he’ll show them houses in his former neighborhood with the promise of “rich pickings.” They travel to Jim’s old house and are captured by the Japanese who are now living there. The trio are placed in a temporary detention center where living conditions are horrible. Food is scarce, the dead are rarely removed, and stealing is the only way to survive. After a few days, a selection takes place; those who are chosen will be sent to an internment camp outside Shanghai. Basie is selected but Jim is not. Jim pleads with Basie to take him along but Basie ignores him. Jim’s tenacity pays off; he is able to convince the Japanese sergeant and the truck driver, who are seen arguing over a map, that he knows the location of the camp. He is allowed to guide the driver to the Soochow Creek Internment Camp.
The passengers arrive at the Soochow Creek and are quickly put to work constructing a runway for the Japanese airforce. Jim wanders away from the group and finds several Japanese Zeros. Overcome by his lifelong dream to be a pilot, Jim touches one of the planes, and is quickly noticed by a Japanese guard. The soldier shouts at Jim in Japanese, and is about to shoot when three Japanese pilots approach and see Jim. He turns around and solemnly salutes them, after which they return the salute, saving him from the soldier.
- The Closing Days of the War
The story then jumps ahead to 1945, a few months before the end of World War II. Jim is now about 13 or 14 years old and has eked out a good living, despite the poor conditions of the camp. He has an extensive trading network, involving even the camp’s commanding officer, Sergeant Nagata. He is being schooled by the camp’s British doctor, Rawlins, who has a difficult time teaching Jim humility. Rawlins has Jim help him with a dying patient; Jim administers CPR (which was not in practice until the 1950s, this is possibly a deliberate error in the film) and the patient shows signs of life despite having obviously died. Jim is overly excited at his prowess and frantically continues CPR despite the patient’s passing.
Jim visits Basie daily in the American men’s section of the camp. The Americans have a broad appeal for Jim; their lifestyle is considerably more relaxed and obviously more fun than their dull British counterparts. Jim’s goal is to impress Basie enough so that he can move into the American men’s barracks.
Jim later rescues Dr. Rawlins from the wrath of Sgt. Nagata, who beats the doctor for defiance. As the doctor lies bleeding on the porch of the camp hospital, Jim delivers an obeisance and a humble speech to the sergeant, who stops the beating and storms off. As a reward, the doctor gives Jim a pair of cleats that belonged to a deceased patient.
- "An American, now..."
Jim gets his chance to impress Basie when Basie charges him with setting snare traps outside the wire of the camp to catch wild pheasants that Basie claims have been roosting there. Jim creeps into the marsh undetected, but the golf shoes he left behind are discovered by a Japanese guard, who tromps into the marsh to find the owner. Just as the guard is about to find Jim, he is distracted by a Japanese boy from the air base on the other side of the wire, whom Jim has “befriended” despite their separation. Jim is able to escape undetected, and for having set the pheasant traps is allowed to move into the American barracks next to Basie. He is also given Frank’s bed (despite Frank's objections).
- Jim Falls out of Favor
In the meantime, Basie has been plotting to escape the camp. Though not explicitly revealed, Basie’s reason for sending Jim into the marsh was to test the area for mines. While they use a makeshift compass to plot direction, Nagata unexpectedly visits Basie’s corner of the barracks. He becomes enraged when he finds a bar of soap that was discreetly stolen by Jim earlier. He severely beats Basie, enough to send him to the infirmary. While being beaten, Basie had charged Jim with watching his possessions. Jim proves to be an inadequate protector and Basie’s things are stolen by the other men in his barracks. Jim leaves the American barracks in shame.
- The American Invasion
One morning at dawn, Jim witnesses a kamikaze ritual of three Japanese pilots at the air base. Overcome with emotion at the solemnity of the ceremony, he begins to sing the same Welsh hymn ("Suo Gan") he sang as a choir boy in the (Anglican) Cathedral School in Shanghai. As the pilots take off on their suicide mission, the base is attacked by a wing of P-51 Mustangs. Jim runs to the roof of a building and cheers them on. The base is heavily damaged in a matter of minutes, Dr. Rawlins finds Jim on the roof and brings Jim back to reality by telling him “not to think so much.”
- Evacuation
The Japanese decide to evacuate the camp. Jim returns excitedly to the American barracks to tell Basie and finds out his friend has already escaped. Jim is devastated that Basie would abandon him for another American prisoner, Dainty, especially when Basie led Jim to believe he'd take the boy with him.
The camp's population begins a grueling march to Nantow where they are told there will be food. Many die along the way, including Mrs. Victor, a British woman who was Jim's "neighbor" at Suzhou. As Jim sits with her body among the war spoils stored in Nantow Stadium by the Japanese, Jim sees a bright light in the sky to the East. He believes it to be Mrs. Victor's soul floating to Heaven but finds out later, through a radio broadcast, that it was the flash from the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, hundreds of miles away.
Starving and weak, Jim trudges back to the camp at Soochow. Making his way through rice paddies, he notices cylindrical objects attached to parachutes falling from the sky. They contain Red Cross relief packages and food items. Jim fills a parachute with supplies and arrives at the camp. He finds the same young Japanese boy he knew from his internment angrily slashing at the plants in the marsh with his samurai sword (earlier, the boy, now a pilot, had failed to start his plane as Jim and the other prisoners were leaving the camp). The boy offers Jim a mango and begins to cut it with his sword. A moment later he is shot dead by one of Basie’s companions, who have rushed into the camp, looting supply canisters. Jim is furious and throws the man who shot his friend into the marsh and begins to punch him. Basie drags him off and promises to take him back to Shanghai and find his parents. Jim refuses the offer and stays behind.
- The Reunion
Jim is found by a unit of American soldiers. He is sent back to Shanghai and housed with other children who have lost their parents. Jim is obviously more scarred by his experiences during the war than the other kids, so much so, that he doesn’t recognize his parents when they arrive at the home and they scarcely recognize him. The paralysis is broken when his mother finds him in the crowd. Jim collapses into his mother’s arms.
[edit] Major themes
The loss of innocence and the onset of adolescence are the themes that dominate the story. What makes Jim's situation unique is that the adolescent phase of his life develops against the backdrop of international war. Jim grows up rich and spoiled and is destined to be a foreign businessman, a tai-pan, like his father. This lifestyle is wholly shattered when World War II, which actually had been underway for several years since the Japanese had invaded Manchuria in 1932 and the Wehrmacht had invaded Poland in September of 1939, finally reaches the British concessions in Shanghai. Jim is forced into a life of pure survival when he is separated from his parents. He must also enter the seedy underworld of Shanghai from which he had been previously (and deliberately) sheltered from his entire life.
The second half of the film shows how Jim is forced to deal with his impending transition into adulthood. Although a young teenager, Jim shows signs of the entrepreneurship that his father must have possessed in Shanghai. However, Jim does, as most teenagers do, experience a crisis of identity while interned at Soochow Creek: the lifestyle he is expected to assume as an Englishman is one that bores him. The carefree life of Americans is much more appealing, especially since one of his closest friends is Basie. What Jim does not (or cannot) surmise because of his young age is Basie's willingness to use Jim for his own selfish plans. Hence, Basie feels little or no guilt about sending a child into the marsh to see if it has been booby-trapped.
The question of whether or not Jim matures into a young adult is left open at the end of the film. When he is left alone in the prison camp he reverts to his childish ways; riding a bicycle indoors, laughing, horseplay and childishly "surrendering" to the American officer that finds him. When he is reunited with his parents, he has the haggard stare and physical look of a wartime survivor, one that has seen more horrors of war than most children normally would. This illusion is somewhat dispelled when he sees his mother for the first time in four years and touches her face as a younger child would.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The book was adapted for the big screen by Tom Stoppard and Menno Meyjes in 1987. Their screenplay was filmed by Steven Spielberg, to critical acclaim, being nominated for six Oscars and winning three British Academy Awards (for Cinematography, Music and Sound). It starred a 13-year-old Christian Bale, as well as John Malkovich and Miranda Richardson. It also had a not-yet-famous Ben Stiller in a bit part.
Bale received a special citation for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor from the National Board of Review — an award specially created for his performance in Empire of the Sun.
Bale's Welsh heritage reportedly inspired the director to use the Welsh song "Suo Gan," sung by James Rainbird and the Richard Williams Singers, as part of the music in the film.
[edit] External links
| Films directed by Steven Spielberg |
|---|
| Duel • The Sugarland Express • Jaws • Close Encounters of the Third Kind • 1941 • Raiders of the Lost Ark • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom • The Color Purple • Empire of the Sun • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade • Always • Hook • Jurassic Park • Schindler's List • The Lost World: Jurassic Park • Amistad • Saving Private Ryan • Artificial Intelligence: AI • Minority Report • Catch Me If You Can • The Terminal • War of the Worlds • Munich • Indiana Jones 4 • Lincoln • Interstellar |
es:El imperio del sol fr:Empire du soleil it:L'impero del sole (film 1987) he:אימפריית השמש nl:Empire of the Sun ja:太陽の帝国 pt:Empire of the Sun ru:Империя солнца (фильм) sv:Solens rike
