Emperor (2013)
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Reviews Counted: 72
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 50
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.
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 21
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.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 3,096
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
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Emperor Trailer & Photos
All Critics (72) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (50)
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.
Top CriticEmperor 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.
Half crinoline romance, half crusty military-history lesson.
Just a dull procedural, with the bland Matthew Fox driving around in a jeep and asking questions and not having them answered.
The epigrams fly, but the movie never really takes off.
Director Webber and the screenwriters, David Klass and Vera Blasi ... largely [waste] Jones and some very nice period details.
...probably the most disappointing 2013 film I've seen so far.
... contains some potentially intriguing subject matter compromised by a formulaic approach that renders the periphery characters more compelling than the central ones.
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.
Emperor missed the opportunity to become an engrossing procedural of historic minutiae, like Lincoln.
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.
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.
Offers a labored treatise on the Japanese national character, with endless speeches about honor, devotion, loyalty, and the people's reverence for their emperor as a human deity.
Other than the restrained romantic flashbacks, there's nothing in this movie that hasn't been done better before.
The real criminals are the screenwriters ...
A decent history lesson--even if one told with a major dose of dramatic license--that's dragged down by a sappy, clumsily played romantic subplot.
Powerful and brilliantly acted. Tommy Lee Jones is remarkable as General Douglas MacArthur in a side of World War II that has remained hidden.
However turgid the storytelling, "Emperor" makes its historic points about a widely unknown 1945 wartime episode that played out in U.S occupied Japan after its surrender.
It comes off as a fairly boring and on-the-nose experience that only history buffs might find intriguing and/or entertaining. (Complete Content Details for Parents also available)
A modestly budgeted, respectfully executed post-WWII drama, the film is also entirely edgeless, and aside from a couple of swear words is ready to be shown in classrooms and on the History Channel in endless repeats.
The mealy half-truth director Peter Webber...screenwriters Vera Blasi and David Klass settle for just winds up a waste of everyone's time.
Emperor, however, is so sophisticated in its ambitions, mature in its narrative, and expert in its execution that the film's failures are more honorable than fatal.
It has an understated but still-relevant message that America may reveal its best self not in its moment of military victory, but in the moments that happen afterward.
Audience Reviews for Emperor
Super Reviewer
It's a promising premise, but Emperor the movie instead turns its attention to a lame romance between Fellers and Aya Shimada (Eriko Hatsune), a Japanese girl he fell for in college before war soured everything. It's an obvious effort to paint a personal face upon a war, particularly on the issue of occupation, something that rings timely today in Iraq and Afghanistan, and not a bad idea, but the film executes it with cliches. The effect is uneven and clumsy. It's towards the end that the film really takes off and that's because Hirohito and MacArthur come face to face and it's a terrific scene, mostly thanks to Jones who does the general proud. Jones steals the movie. Pity it's not worth running away with.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Beautifully filmed and elegantly presented | 2 months ago | 0 |
Latest News on Emperor
March 8, 2013:
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Nate's Grade: C