Emperor 2012

After the war was won, the battle for peace began.

6.1 / 10   241 vote(s)
PG-13
Drama History War

As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.

Release Date 2012-09-14
Runtime 1h 45m
Directors Peter Webber, Stuart Dryburgh, Sam Storey
Producers Eugene Nomura, Yōko Narahashi, Russ Krasnoff, Gary Foster, Ineke Majoor, Paul Glubb
Writers Vera Blasi, David Klass

An ambitious attempt to describe a very important problem facing MacArthur when he became Supreme Commander over Japan: should he drag the emperor to a war crime tribunal in order to appease politicians back home in the US who felt that the voters wanted it, or should he be more concerned about restoring Japan as quickly as possible to ensure that communism didn't get a foothold there?
Unfortunately, the story misses many opportunities to more deeply explore cultural differences and moral dilemmas, and instead is filled with several distracting short scenes and sidelines that confuse rather than enlighten.
It could have been a great film, but now it's just decent.

TomStensson