Claim: Steven Spielberg is a director.

Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American epic coming-of-age war film based on J. G. Ballard 's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name . It was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars John Malkovich , Miranda Richardson , Nigel Havers , and Christian Bale . The film tells the story of Jamie `` Jim '' Graham , a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai , to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp , during World War II .   Harold Becker and David Lean were originally to direct before Spielberg came on board , initially as a producer for Lean . Spielberg was attracted to directing the film because of a personal connection to Lean 's films and World War II topics . He considers it to be his most profound work on `` the loss of innocence '' . The film received critical acclaim but was not initially a box office success , earning only $ 22,238,696 at the US box office , but it eventually more than recouped its budget through revenues in other markets .