'Learned a new word today. Atom bomb. It was like the God taking a photograph.'

Rating: 10/10 (5 August 2013)

Some films never age, they just become more important with repeated viewings. This is the time to add this DVD to your library at the extraordinarily inexpensive price. It is a treasure and seeing 26 years after its initial release only enhances the impact this film made on the world not yet ready for such an epic.
Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay based on J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel 'The Empire of the Sun' which tells the story of a boy, James Graham (Christian Bale, very young and very talented), whose privileged life is upturned by the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, December 8, 1941. Separated from his parents, he is eventually captured, and taken to Soo Chow confinement camp, next to a captured Chinese airfield. Amidst the sickness and food shortages in the camp, Jim attempts to reconstruct his former life, all the while bringing spirit and dignity to those around him. Somehow Bale manages to transform from the pampered British aristocracy in Shanghai through the changes brought about by the Japanese invasion of China and becomes a survivor and a little hero role model to many.
Steven Spielberg directs this epic with a cast that includes John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson , Nigel Havers, Joe Pantoliano, Leslie Phillips, Masatô Ibu, Ben Stiller among others. It is a deeply moving film, beautifully captured in cinematography and musical scoring - a film that belongs in the library of all film buffs.
Grady Harp