Utterly offensive

Rating: 2/10 (27 September 2006)

Whatever its artistic merits, the subtle implications of Spielberg's Empire of the Sun convey a far more sinister impression both of the director's distorted view of history and his readily apparent hypocrisy.
It still shocks me the sheer number of individuals who seem to have misinterpreted this film as condemning atrocities as perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army. As such, consider the facts.
In the film, the Japanese Army regulars never kill so much as a single person, implying that the worst of its conduct relied upon repossessing real estate and partially neglecting the medical and sustenance needs of westerners in captivity.
The Chinese are portrayed as babbling idiots, whose ( as Spielberg implies) readily apparent hysteria ultimately separated Jamie from his family. In fact, the biggest nemesis to Christain Bale embodies that of a homeless Chinese boy who attempts to rob and beat him. Furthermore, the fact that Japanese troops apparently perpetuated little more than a repossession of real estate and confiscation of a slightly greater portion of food resources tends to imply the panicked crowds of Chinese attempting to flee the Japanese occupation as guilty of rampant paranoia and hysteria, considering that (according to Spielberg) they had little to fear from their impending occupants.
Mind you, I have no qualms whatsoever of Spielberg's incentive to portray the Japanese as multidimensional humans, offset by some individuals who perpetrated reprehensible acts; that's fine. However, comparing his readily apparent sense of moral outrage as a contextual misinterpretation leads to the killing of a well-intentioned Japanese pilot by one of the main characters to the more than subtle implications of Saving PRivate Ryan that attempts to perpetuate excuses for Americans who executed unarmed German prisoners lays bear the directors affinity for insufferable hypocrisy.
And, as one reviewer already pointed out, the story focuses primarily on the (not so severe, as Spielberg implies) maltreatment of white detention camp victims, rather than upon the Chinese who endured far worse at the hands of a doctrine that, like Naziism, perpetuated a sense of racial purity. Indeed, one cannot help but wonder whether Spielberg shares this imperial doctrine by envisioning the Japanese as racially superior the remaining occupants of the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Only after Munich has Spielberg begun to show even the faintest traces of either maturity or objectivity. However, he'll require a lot more deeds before overcoming his legitimate (however non-official) status as one of the world's pre-eminent hypocrites.