Emperor

Emperor, the latest film by Peter Webber, the man who brought the atrocious Hannibal Rising to theaters is a film that completely misses the mark on far too many instances that could have made this film a classic. There is nothing stylized here, there is no beauty, no feast for the eyes, nothing to really sink your teeth into. It is a bland film based on the true story when Gen MacArthur meets the Emperor of Japan. It's a story worthy of a movie and sadly this is the one they made, because of that it gets a bucket of Killer Korn.




Emperor is a story worth being told and the movie is based on the novel His Majesty's Salvation by Shiro Okamoto, Emperor tells the story of Japan at the end of World War II. It's after the nuclear bombs have been dropped of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which brought Japan to her knees and made the Emperor surrender. The Americans, led by Supreme Leader of the Allied Forces, General MacArthur, played by the talented Tommy Lee Jones, and company have arrived to try to bring Japan back from the dead, but before they do that, they need to know if it was the Emperor who gave the order for the attack on Pearl Harbor. To get the answers the President wants as well as the American people, an investigation must be conducted. MacArthur has just the man at his disposal to get that particular job done, General Bonner Fellers. General Fellers has been to Japan before and in fact fallen in love with a Japanese woman so he is aware of all the necessary customs and won't trample on them to get answers.

Fellers is played by Matthew Fox and the man cannot act, which is probably why I could never really get into Lost. Anyway, he's got one facial expression and one emotion throughout this entire film. As the headliner and carrier of the film, that is the kiss of death for a film. Fellers is given ten days to conduct his investigation on the Emperor, having to weave though a web of  the political officers who haven't committed suicide yet as well as the Emperors outer circle and inner. He has to do all that while quiet the rumblings from his own men about his ability to do this job all while trying to find the woman he loves, Aya Shimada played by the ethereally beautiful Eriko Hatsune, who stayed behind when he was expelled from Japan before the start of the war. It is a FANTASTIC story and I really want to read Okamoto's book but as for the movie, the movie I really wanted to like, it was a massive let down.

While I understand this story takes place while Japan is still smoldering, this movie failed to capture the beauty of that land. It failed to capture it's grace, and it failed to capture the grace of it's people. There was nothing here and a truly bland movie was made, a bland movie that could have been a classic had it been in the hands of a far more competent director. Peter Webber has made feature length films before but he's primarily a TV director so his scope is limited, which made this movie look like it belonged on TV. There is no beauty to this movie and honestly, this movie should have been a classic. All the elements were in place for it to be a classic and instead what's offered is this drab look at one of the more remarkable moments in history between Japan and America. Maybe that's why this film is currently in limited release and may never see wide release.

There's not much else to say about Emperor sadly, though the one impressive things about it was the music. Scored by Alex Heffes, the music tried to add the drama the movie itself failed to deliver on. It tired to make you feel for characters the movie did not get you emotionally invested in. Using traditional Japanese instruments along with a full orchestra, Alex Heffes did a great job, it's just too bad this good score was wasted on this bland film. Hopefully his next score will be rewarded with a good movie to go along with it. I say skip Emperor, see something else, and I'll see you at the theater.