The realm of the sun

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Movie
German title The realm of the sun
Original title Empire of the Sun
Country of production United States
original language English , Japanese , Chinese
Publishing year 1987
length 146 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Steven Spielberg
script Tom Stoppard
production Kathleen Kennedy ,
Frank Marshall ,
Steven Spielberg
music John Williams
camera Allen Daviau
cut Michael Kahn
occupation

The Empire of the Sun (original title: Empire of the Sun ) is a feature film by the American director Steven Spielberg from 1987 . The drama is based on the novel of the English author JG Ballard and was from film studios, Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. produced.

action

Shanghai , in 1941: Eleven-year-old Jim lives with his parents Mary and John Graham in the British quarter of the Chinese port city, one of the most important marketplaces in East Asia. The Grahams are wealthy British people who enjoy a life of privilege and luxury. The family of three only has contact with the Chinese population when they are chauffeured through the crowded streets of Shanghai in limousines to attend a business lunch or a masquerade ball.

As planes increase in the sky over Shanghai, Jim is fascinated by the Japanese Zeros , whose pilots are considered extremely brave. The boy is very interested in aviation and is able to recognize each type of aircraft by its silhouette in the sky, but for his parents the Japanese planes are a bad omen that a Japanese invasion is imminent. China has been in the Second Sino-Japanese War for several years, and when the war reaches Shanghai, the orderly and perfect world of Jim falls apart. As the Grahams attempt to flee the city from the Japanese invasion, Jim is separated from his parents in the panic-filled crowd. Looking for food in the occupied city, the boy soon makes the acquaintance of the cynical former ship steward Basie and his friend Frank. The two Americans plan to sell Jim first; but since the boy is so thin, there are no buyers. Eventually, all three of them are captured by Japan and are interned in a prisoner of war camp. Jim takes refuge in the world of flying, which also accompanies him in his dreams. The boy has no news from his parents and soon he cannot even remember their faces.

At the internment camp, Basie becomes a kind of foster father for Jim. Basie takes no responsibility for the boy, but teaches him a lot. The spoiled boy of noble descent is soon beginning to transform into a shrewd small business owner. Eventually all prisoners in the internment camp have to move inland. Jim and a woman friend play dead in a warehouse with western belongings in order to be able to escape. The woman dies in the night. When Jim notices it, suddenly a blazing light flashes on the horizon and briefly a few northern lights in the sky. Jim thinks the woman's soul has gone to heaven. He later learned through a radio broadcast that he actually witnessed the atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki .

When the war ends in 1945, he meets his parents again.

History of origin

The Empire of the Sun is based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by the English writer J. G. Ballard. Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, in 1930 and experienced the Japanese attack on China at the age of eleven. He was interned in a Japanese civil prison camp until the end of World War II and returned to England with his family in 1946. Almost forty years later, Ballard wrote his novel about this period of life, published in 1984 and adapted for the screen by the British playwright Tom Stoppard . The US-American Steven Spielberg, who co-produced the drama with his film company Amblin Entertainment, founded in 1982, was able to be engaged as a director.

Filming began on March 1, 1987. The majority of the filming took place in the Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire , England, as well as in the English cities of Knutsford ( Cheshire ) and Sunningdale ( Berkshire ). The outdoor shots were made in Trebujena, Spain, and at original locations in Shanghai. This makes The Empire of the Sun the first Hollywood production to receive a shooting license for China.

reception

With The Empire of the Sun , Steven Spielberg took on another serious topic after Die Farbe Lila (1985). The film premiered in US cinemas on December 8, 1987, and received critical acclaim. However, negative voices complained that Spielberg's film would work with too many revelations and prison camp clichés. The film was also Spielberg's least successful work, as the $ 38 million production went on to be a failure at the North American box office for grossing only $ 22 million. One reason for the low sales was that at the same time Bernardo Bertolucci's highly rated drama The Last Emperor started in US cinemas, which is also set in China.

The Kingdom of the Sun , which started in Germany on March 10, 1988, was the career springboard for the actor Christian Bale , who made his cinema debut under Spielberg at the age of 13 and who, as he got older, easily made the transition from a child star to the character field.

Reviews

  • “From a narrative point of view, the film is always interesting. Spielberg is a good storyteller with a penchant for storytelling. But it never really comes down to anything. ”( Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, December 11, 1987)
  • "Elaborate and rousing monumental painting of the war in the Far East, masterfully and perfectly staged." (VideoWoche)
  • "Could Steven Spielberg please avoid the following in his next film: boys on bicycles, rebirth, a sky lit up like July 4th, and another ten to twelve year old struggling in an adult world?" (Desson Howe in der Washington Post December 11, 1987)
  • “The film, staged with immense effort, is particularly impressive in the crowd scenes; he is also excellently played by the young leading actor, whose perspective he rigorously takes over. However, this makes it too melodramatic for a long time and remains too little informative ”. ( Lexicon of International Films )

Remarks

  • Suo Gân , the movie song, is a bedtime song that is sung in the Welsh language. Steven Spielberg chose this vocal piece after hiring Welsh actor Christian Bale to star . The piece of music was interpreted by James Rainbird .
  • Originally the Briton David Lean wanted to direct the project.
  • The author of the novel, J. G. Ballard, has a brief cameo in the opening scene as a party guest.
  • Most of the scenes that take place in the internment camp fell victim to the scissors in the editing room . The originally larger roles of Miranda Richardson, Robert Stephens and Paul McGann advanced to short appearances.
  • In the chaotic street scene in which Jim loses his parents, a poster for the film Gone with the Wind (1939) can be seen briefly . Although the film actually premiered in 1939, the peculiar movie poster wasn't created until it was re-released in 1967.

Awards

Empire of the Sun was at the 1988 Oscar -Verleihung for six Academy Awards nominations, but was awarded none of the coveted film awards. There were further nominations in the same year for the Golden Globe Awards , at which Steven Spielberg's work was nominated for best feature film in the drama category, as well as for the film music by the renowned American film composer John Williams . In 1989, Das Reich der Sonne received the British Academy Film Award in the categories of film music, camera and sound.

Steven Spielberg was also honored with the National Board of Review Award and was nominated for Best Director by the Directors Guild of America . Leading actor Christian Bale was also honored for his role as a young war refugee with the National Board of Review award, which he received in the special category Best Juvenile Performance, created especially for him . Bale also received a Young Artist Award .

Oscar 1988

Nominated in the categories

  • Best equipment
  • Best film score
  • Best camera
  • Best costumes
  • Best cut
  • Best tone

British Academy Film Award 1989

  • Best film score
  • Best camera
  • Best tone

Nominated in the categories

  • Best adapted script
  • Best equipment
  • Best costumes

Golden Globe Awards 1988

Nominated in the categories

  • Best film - drama
  • Best film score

Further

American Society of Cinematographers 1988

  • Best camera

Directors Guild of America 1988

  • nominated for best director

Grammy 1989

  • nominated in the category best instrumental album for a cinema or television film

National Board of Review Awards 1987

  • Best film in English
  • Best director
  • Best Youth Performance (Christian Bale)

Young Artist Awards 1989

  • Best Family Film - Drama
  • Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture Drama

literature

  • J. G. Ballard: The realm of the sun. Roman (original title: Empire of the Sun ). German by Juliane Gräbener and Marianne Menzel . Heyne, Munich 1992, 398 pages, ISBN 3-453-06124-1
  • J. G. Ballard: Empire of the Sun , 2005 Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-7432-6523-8 (English edition)
  • Tom Stoppard, J. G. Ballard: Empire of the Sun. A Screenplay , 1987 Hollywood Scripts (English edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of release for the empire of the sun . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2005 (PDF; test number: 59 367 DVD).
  2. ^ Review by Roger Ebert
  3. ^ Critique by Desson Howe
  4. ↑ The kingdom of the sun. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used