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Emperor (2013)

tomatometer

29

Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 83
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 59

Despite a typically strong performance from Tommy Lee Jones, Emperor does little with its fascinating historical palate, and is instead bogged down in a cliched romantic subplot.

21

Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 22

Despite a typically strong performance from Tommy Lee Jones, Emperor does little with its fascinating historical palate, and is instead bogged down in a cliched romantic subplot.

audience

47

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 5,432

My Rating

Movie Info

Matthew Fox (WORLD WAR Z, I, ALEX CROSS, "Lost") joins with Academy Award (R) winner Tommy Lee Jones (LINCOLN, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THE FUGITIVE, HOPE SPRINGS), newcomer Eriko Hatsune and award-winning Japanese star Toshiyuki Nishida (GET UP!, TSURIBAKA NISSHI 14, TSURIBAKA NISSHI 6, GAKKO, DUN-HUANG) to bring to life the American occupation of Japan in the perilous and unpredictable days just after Emperor Hirohito's World War II surrender. As General Douglas MacArthur (Jones) suddenly finds

PG-13,

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Vera Blasi

Aug 13, 2013

$3.3M

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Cast

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All Critics (83) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (59)

It's all done with care and authentic Japanese locations ... But there's scant drama.

October 1, 2013 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A stodgy movie that mixes dubious history with a clichéd, Madame Butterfly romance story, set in the period immediately following Japan's surrender in 1945.

March 29, 2013 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Emperor falls prey to the temptations endemic to historical docudrama: the desire to pack a miniseries' worth of events into one feature-length film, with romance tossed in for added appeal.

March 28, 2013 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Half crinoline romance, half crusty military-history lesson.

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Just a dull procedural, with the bland Matthew Fox driving around in a jeep and asking questions and not having them answered.

March 8, 2013 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The epigrams fly, but the movie never really takes off.

March 8, 2013 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hokey monologues about the finger of historical blame are interspersed with perfume-ad flashbacks to idyllic days of love; you half expect Andrew Lloyd Webber to descend from on high to provide a few touching show tunes.

October 6, 2013 Full Review Source: Observer [UK]
Observer [UK]

The climax, when MacArthur finally meets Hirohito, is fascinating - and validated by the end-credit, picture-led round-up of what happened to the leading characters.

October 4, 2013 Full Review Source: Birmingham Mail
Birmingham Mail

Undemanding, handsome and played with conviction, but sorely missing any sense of urgency.

October 4, 2013 Full Review Source: Sky Movies
Sky Movies

Solidly crafted. Totally pointless.

October 4, 2013 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

Emperor is dutiful, patient and almost entirely without flair.

October 3, 2013 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

An attempt to spice up a true story with fictional characters and events leaves this film feeling artificial.

October 3, 2013 Full Review Source: Contactmusic.com
Contactmusic.com

Webber brings the politics and intrigue to the fore in a gripping final act, but the overall impression is that a fascinating story from history has been lost in the telling.

September 30, 2013 Full Review Source: The List
The List

Good intentions, vivid setting and TLJ on top form do not make up for a lack of anything truly compelling.

September 29, 2013 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

All the right elements were here for this telling, but sadly the filmmakers lost sight of what was important in the narrative, inevitably making the film suffer for it in the end.

August 12, 2013 Full Review Source: Examiner.com
Examiner.com

Emperor seems to have been tailor-made for high school history classes whose teachers like to give themselves a break by popping in a DVD.

May 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Seven Days
Seven Days

...probably the most disappointing 2013 film I've seen so far.

April 26, 2013 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

... contains some potentially intriguing subject matter compromised by a formulaic approach that renders the periphery characters more compelling than the central ones.

March 29, 2013 Full Review Source: Cinemalogue.com
Cinemalogue.com

Director Peter Webber, who found a more elegant balance between history and passion in Girl With a Pearl Earring, has turned Emperor into a stagy and hollow kind of story.

March 29, 2013 Full Review Source: Canada.com
Canada.com

Emperor missed the opportunity to become an engrossing procedural of historic minutiae, like Lincoln.

March 29, 2013 Full Review Source: National Post
National Post

This is a movie that tries to be that great war film, as well as a star-crossed romance and a political thriller, without really succeeding on any front.

March 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine
Paste Magazine

If you can't take this movie for history, what may it be taken as? As romance it's not believable. Much of the history is censored, including the rumored "Operation Blacklist" involving the pressure from above to clear the names of the royal family.

March 19, 2013 Full Review Source: MetroActive
MetroActive

Audience Reviews for Emperor

Set in Occupied Japan in the immediate aftermath of World War II, this is the story of Brigadier General Bonner Fellers, who, at the urging of General Douglas MacArthur, is tasked with determining if Emperor Hirohito should be put on trial for war crimes or not.

This is an interesting topic, and could have made for a great and fascinating film. However, any potential the film had is undercut by the inclusion of a cliched and unnecessary romantic subplot, as well as the fact that not a whole lot is really done with the material at hand.

It's just a routine and by the numbers dry historical drama that tries to bring an important facet of history to life, but instead just kinda limps along and presents just the bare basics of what went down.

I will say that the period details are admittedly well done, and the film has a nice look to it. It's just unfortunate that the film's occasional subtitle and title cards are done in a really small and difficult to read font.

As for the performances, Matthew Fox is passable, though unremarkable as Fellers, and then there's Tommy Lee Jones as MacArthur. He's fine, and it's a decently well cast part, but I feel like they still could have done more to give the part more weight and depth. I really don't know much about the Asian cast members, but their performances seemed okay.

All in all, this is an unfortunately half-assed historical drama that is well dressed, but fails to say anything all that meaningful.
February 18, 2013
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

When you're tasked with retelling an interesting part of history, a story that few are familiar with, it's best to get out of the way. You don't need to gussy it up if the history, itself, is interesting enough to warrant a movie. Suck is the case with Emperor, a drama set in Japan weeks after their surrender to Allied forces in WWII. General Douglas MacArthur (a stodgy, scenery-chewing performance from Tommy Lee Jones) will rely upon the advice of one man (Matthew Fox) whether to try the Japanese emperor for war crimes for his possible involvement in the Pearl Harbor attack. The country is still recovering from the shock of nuclear bombs, its people could rebel against foreign occupiers, and the future of the country feels precariously on the brink. All of this makes for a good setting for a story, but Emperor doesn't stick this out. It keeps falling back to a lame love story about Fox's college days when he was smitten with a Japanese woman. So, now in Japan again, he desperately looks for her, having amber memories to times where he chased her around wooded areas (they must have done this a lot as a couple since it makes up the majority of his flashbacks). You keep thinking, isn't there a bigger story at work here than one guy's failed college romance? The rest of the movie is treated so cursory, with stiff-lip TV procedural attention, so that the details are all we get and the people get lost. Ultimately, Emperor is a movie that crushes us with the wrong history, misses out developing all the meaty stuff, and thinks what we truly want is Fox chasing after his lost love. It's a shame the movie is so boring while the history is not.

Nate's Grade: C
March 22, 2013
boxman
Nate Zoebl

Super Reviewer

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Discussion Forum

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Beautifully filmed and elegantly presented 7 months ago 0

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