The Sun (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sun
Russian poster
Directed by	Alexander Sokurov
Produced by	Igor Kallenof Marco Muller Andrei Sigle
Written by	Yuri Arabov
Starring	Issei Ogata Robert Dawson
Music by	Andrei Sigle
Cinematography	Alexander Sokurov
Editing by	Sergei Ivanov
Release date(s)	2005
Running time	115 min
Language	Japanese English
Preceded by	Taurus
IMDb profile

The Sun (Russian: Сóлнце, Solntse) is a 2005 Russian biographical film about Japanese Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) directed by Alexander Sokurov. The film is the third in Sokurov's planned tetralogy on the leaders of Russia (Taurus about Lenin), Germany (Moloch about Hitler), Japan and another unknown world leader.^[1]

1 Synopsis
2 Historical accuracy
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The film focus on the meeting between Emperor Shōwa and General Douglas MacArthur after Empire of Japan's defeat in World War II.

[edit] Historical accuracy

Having confessed himself not "being interested in the history or politics which took place, not really interested in historical events or the period" ^[2], Sokurov gives a personal impression of Hirohito and choose to omit all references to questions surrounding the Tokyo tribunal about the personal responsibility of the emperor as head of the Imperial General Headquarters and thus in the Japanese war crimes.

This choice reflects even in the events such as the imperial conference between the emperor and his council and the meeting between Hirohito and MacArthur where none of the words are related to imperial interpreter Katsuzô Okumura's transcript. Thus, as Okumura noted that the general praised the emperor's "august virtue" (miitsu) ^[3], Sokurov present a tense meeting where MacArthur clearly show his disrespect and Hirohito is confused and talking to himself.

According to The Times, the film has not been widely screened in Japan due to fears of violence from right wing extremists over its portrayal of Hirohito.