One of my all time favorites.

An absolute waste of money

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The Sun is a domestic film of quiet heartbreak that just happens to be about the ordained leader of a nation. It chronicles the last days of Hirohito's reign in a sympathetic but not apologist manner, dealing in subtlety and silences. Sokurov not only manages to make this elegiac instead of boring but fills the screen with indelible images.Almost as important as Sokurov to The Sun's success is Issei Ogata. Ogata portrays Hirohito as a curious mixture of wisdom and naiveté. He acts with his whole body, from the prim minimized way he stands to the strange tremblings of his lips. Halfway through the film Douglas MacArthur proclaims that Hirohito is like a child, but this isn't quite accurate. He's a man who's developed stunted, like a flower twisting towards the sun, and often seems to have a baffling idea of what the outside world is like. He more resembles a hermit than an emperor, and this may be Sokurov's ultimate statement about power: that as much as it allows you to control others, it also isolates and insulates you from them, and ultimately makes you as strange and pathetic as the old man in this film.

This is a very minimalistic effort. A movie where it seems nothing much happens and which moves along so slow, even snails would be annoyed. So if go into the movie expecting something fast, with fancy camera work (it's great camera work and the set/costume design is superb), where the camera brings in an action level, you'd be mistaken.But what you do get, is a wonderfully crafted story, with exceptional acting. And while this is a Russian movie, it plays in Japan and has Japanese values written all over it. While it could be described as boring, I really liked every little bit of it. The stillness and ambiguity, the main character "fighting" to maintain a status. The cruel treatment he seems to be getting by some and of course the clash of the cultures. Subtle, sublime and very well done.

Director Sokourov's portrayal of the Japanese Emperor during the time of his capitulation to America is spellbinding and possibly unique. Japanese civilization and especially its culture from warriors to sex and love are totally different to western culture. Issei HiroHito who plays the role of the Emperor is majestic in human manner and mannerisms, spanning glimpses of ancient customs of etiquette, the significance of poetry and the new world of science (HiroHito's passion being marine biology). Most significant is his surprising awareness of the fateful decisions he has to take at the end of WW2 in order to bring Japan into the next era. Long lasting peace is his fervent vision. One is surprised to learn that he hardly participatedin the making of the military decisions: unaware of the attack on Pearl Harbour, for example. Luckily for Japan, MacArthur knew something about Japan and its rigid etiquette and sensitive non military culture, having been there before the war. Lukily for Japan, MacArthur decided on getting to know his opponent in person to person meetings with the Emperor before pronouncing judgment on whether the Emperor was guilty of being leader of the war or just an innocent person kept away from the important decisions. The two meetings between MacArthur and HiroHito when HirorHito spoke English (he said he also spoke other languages), were non-political and dealt mostly with personal matters of family and leisure interests. These discussions, subtly developed in the film, convinced MacArthur that HiroHito was innocent and that HiroHito could be a unifying force for a new Japan. (This positive attitude by America through MacArthur can be contrasted by the exact opposite of the Versaille Peace Treaty at the end of WW1 vindictively pushed through by the French and which proved to be, as Woodrow Wilson feared, a cause for further troubles in Europe, finally WW2.) What makes the film outstanding is Issei Ogata's sensitive and convincing portrayal of the Emperor concerned with human interests, who is considered by the Japanese as a God. Secondly, the decorum of the Japanese, so rigid to exclude all compromise. Luckily for the Japanese HiroHito found a way to compromise. Also the film's special color range suggested more undertones than either a documentary or a book. Essential to see to understand.

It's been a week that I have seen The Sun. I would say that this is one of the best movies I have seen in recent times. Initially I went to watch the film with some qualms about Sokurov's over-ambitious (so I thought) project. 5 minutes into the film and I knew that I was watching a real good movie- hat's off. The subtle interplay of characters, the thought process of the emperor, the surroundings, the Americans will seem all too real. The film is slow in terms of change of events- but you will never feel it. The emperor Hirohita ad the human Hirohita and the obscure line between them is fabulous. It is like going through a brief period of emperors life right in front of him. Mark my words, you'll like it! Vikram