It's good, but it's no masterpiece.

Rating: 7/10 (9 August 2005)

Spielberg is one of the best of today's Hollywood directors and especially his historically inspired movies like "Schindler's List", "Amistad" and "Saving Private Ryan", I appreciated a lot. Knowing that this movie too was from his hand and that it told a story situated in China during the Japanese occupation of the country in WWII, really made me look forward to it, hoping for a movie that would be at least as good as the three others that I mentioned above...
At the start of WWII, when the Japanese start to occupy China, there are a lot of British citizens living in Shangai. A lot of them flee as the Japanese army comes closer, but the aristocratic family of the young James Graham stays, not easily willing to give up the privileged life that they are leading. But when on December 8, 1941, the Japanese take over the city, it's too late for them to get out. James gets separated from his family and finds himself living on the street and fighting for food, until he is eventually captured and taken to a confinement camp for British civilians, next to a captured Chinese airfield. Here he develops an admiration for the American captured pilots that are kept prisoner with the British civilians, as well as for the Japanese fighter pilots who take off from the airfield. And while he tries to survive among all the sick and hungry people, he keeps believing that one day he will see his parents again...
Overall I liked this movie, but I must say that the second part was definitely the best. As soon as he is in that POW camp and gradually calms down, I could feel sorry for James, but as long as he was that spoiled and annoying little kid who liked to boss the staff around, who didn't seem to care for any rules or regulations,... I can't say that he did something to me. And that's something that I can't say about the Japanese boy who was always hanging around on the airstrip and who I liked from the beginning. When he was about to finally realize his dream of flying a real airplane, although that would mean certain death because he was about to embark on a Kamikaze mission, I was happy for him. And it's weird, but when he couldn't take off, I truly felt sorry for him, knowing what this meant to him. So in the end I would say that for me personally it was a lot easier to empathize with him than with that spoiled British kid.
The acting in this movie is good. Takatoro Kataoka was excellent as the young Japanese boy and John Malkovich was my favorite as Basie, but the others were OK as well. I'm not going to say that the performance of most of them was exceptional, but it was good and their acting certainly supported the interesting story. The fact that the story was written from the perspective of the young James isn't new though. Already in 1979, there was a war movie that used this concept. "Die blechtrommel" from Volker Schlöndorff already showed the rise of the Nazi's in Gdansk, Poland (back then Danzig).
Overall this certainly isn't a bad movie, but it just wasn't as great as what I'm used to see from Spielberg when it comes to this kind of movies. When you've seen for instance "Schindler's List", then you know that he is capable of a lot more than what he has shown with this movie. I just couldn't get completely and emotionally involved in it, like I could with "Schinldler's List" and that's why I will give this movie a 7/10, which certainly isn't bad, but just not as much as what I would give to the other one.