6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, General Douglas MacArthur assigns the task of investigating whether Emperor Hirohito should be hanged as a war criminal to a younger staff General Bonner Fellers. Influencing his recommendation is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S. All this must be done within ten days when MacArthur must decide on the Emperor's fate!
Starring: Matthew Fox, Tommy Lee Jones, Eriko Hatsune, Toshiyuki Nishida, Masayoshi HanedaWar | 100% |
History | 87% |
Drama | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
My late father retired as a Major General in the United States Army and had been a much decorated hero in World War II, rising quickly from Captain to Lt. Colonel, and when he died one of the really cool pieces of military memorabilia I inherited from him was the complete set of plans for the never realized land invasion of Japan, something that was supposed to happen in 1945 and which my father would have been part of the command structure to complete, but which of course was made moot by the devastating dropping of the two atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Buried in the pages of "background" accompanying maps of the proposed invasion are some passing references to capturing Japan’s ruling elite, including Emperor Hirohito. It’s obvious that the Allies did not want a martyr in this theater, though it’s unclear whether these plans were developed before or after the discovery that Hitler had committed suicide in April of that year (my hunch is these were done long before that event). The situation was quite a bit different in Japan than in Germany, for as much as Hitler was lionized, even deified, in his native country, the Japanese actually had a long tradition of recognizing their Emperors as divine beings, God’s vessels on Earth. With Hitler dead from the get go of the defeat of the Germans, there was no doubt that his underlings would be arrested and tried for war crimes. But what should happen to the Japanese, especially Emperor Hirohito? These were pressing questions as the Pacific Theater battles dwindled after the atomic bombs were dropped, and they serve as the focal point of Emperor, a film that could have been a viscerally exciting examination of cultural differences and the aftermath of an incredibly horrific conflagration, but which plays out as a kind of stately reenactment without any real human interest, despite the questionable addition of a fictional love story involving Fellers and a Japanese national. Tommy Lee Jones is on hand as MacArthur, but the film is really about General Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox), the man tasked with deciding what to do about a supposedly “divine” ruler of a defeated people.
Emperor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Director Peter Webber established his visual bona fides with Girl With a Pearl Earring, and he stages much of this film with the same sort of majesty and sense of scale. Colors are intentionally muted in the contemporary sequences, graded to a sort of slate gray most of the time. That leaves the flashbacks to the burgeoning romance between Fellers and Aya as the really vivid part of the film, often filled with an astoundingly bright palette that dabbles in gorgeous greens and yellows. Fine detail is exceptional in close-ups. The CGI is rather soft looking quite a bit of the time. The film starts out with some archival footage of the bomb being dropped on Nagasaki, and that's obviously very ragged looking in comparison to the rest of the film. Contrast, black levels and shadow detail are all consistent throughout this presentation.
Emperor's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is spectacularly effective quite a bit of the time, starting with some ominous low end rumbling as we watch the atom bomb being dropped on Nagasaki, and then moving on to a glut of really nicely done foley effects (listen to how the first shot of MacArthur's plane includes a really well done pan from the rear channels forward). Ambient environmental noises are utilized quite well throughout the feature, including small moments like the whimper of a child in a devastated ruin. Dialogue is always clear and clean. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is fairly wide.
I'm a sucker for historical epics, and I can even tolerate a good star-crossed romance given the right circumstances, but Emperor is too wishy-washy to ever decide what exactly it wants to be. The film has some great moments, mostly to do with the efforts to decide how to dispose of Hirohito's fate, but they're saddled with the baggage of the forlorn romance between Fellers and Aya. The film is quite beautifully designed, with great production details and well done costumes, but Fox is kind of bland in the lead role, while Jones probably is having a bit too much fun chewing the scenery this acerbically. Still, there may be enough here to warrant at least a rental, at least if the expectation bar is set appropriately low, especially considering the fact that this Blu-ray looks and sounds stupendous.
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