Emperor (2013)

31% of critics liked it
(72 reviews)
63% of users liked it
(3,114 ratings)

Matthew Fox (WORLD WAR Z, I, ALEX CROSS, "Lost") joins with Academy Award (R) winner Tommy Lee Jones (LINCOLN, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THE FUGITIVE, HOPE SPRINGS), newcomer Eriko Hatsune and award-winning Japanese star Toshiyuki Nishida (GET UP!, TSURIBAKA NISSHI 14, TSURIBAKA NISSHI 6,… More Matthew Fox (WORLD WAR Z, I, ALEX CROSS, "Lost") joins with Academy Award (R) winner Tommy Lee Jones (LINCOLN, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THE FUGITIVE, HOPE SPRINGS), newcomer Eriko Hatsune and award-winning Japanese star Toshiyuki Nishida (GET UP!, TSURIBAKA NISSHI 14, TSURIBAKA NISSHI 6, GAKKO, DUN-HUANG) to bring to life the American occupation of Japan in the perilous and unpredictable days just after Emperor Hirohito's World War II surrender. As General Douglas MacArthur (Jones) suddenly finds himself the de facto ruler of a foreign nation, he assigns an expert in Japanese culture - and psychological warfare - General Bonner Fellers (Fox), to covertly investigate the looming question hanging over the country: should the Japanese Emperor, worshiped by his people but accused of war crimes, be punished or saved? Caught between the high-wire political intrigue of his urgent mission and his own impassioned search for the mysterious school teacher (Hatsune) who first drew him to Japan, Fellers can be certain only that the tricky subterfuge about to play out will forever change the history of two nations and his heart. (c) Roadside Attractions

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Directed By: Peter Webber
Written By: Vera Blasi
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Mar 8, 2013 Limited
Studio: Roadside Attractions

Critic Reviews

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
A stodgy movie that mixes dubious history with a clichéd, Madame Butterfly romance story, set in the period immediately following Japan's surrender in 1945.
Peter Howell, Toronto Star
Emperor falls prey to the temptations endemic to historical docudrama: the desire to pack a miniseries' worth of events into one feature-length film, with romance tossed in for added appeal.
Peter Debruge, Variety
Half crinoline romance, half crusty military-history lesson.
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
Just a dull procedural, with the bland Matthew Fox driving around in a jeep and asking questions and not having them answered.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
The epigrams fly, but the movie never really takes off.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Director Webber and the screenwriters, David Klass and Vera Blasi ... largely [waste] Jones and some very nice period details.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...probably the most disappointing 2013 film I've seen so far.
Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue.com
... contains some potentially intriguing subject matter compromised by a formulaic approach that renders the periphery characters more compelling than the central ones.
Jay Stone, Canada.com
Director Peter Webber, who found a more elegant balance between history and passion in Girl With a Pearl Earring, has turned Emperor into a stagy and hollow kind of story.
Nathalie Atkinson, National Post
Emperor missed the opportunity to become an engrossing procedural of historic minutiae, like Lincoln.
Tyler Chase, Paste Magazine
This is a movie that tries to be that great war film, as well as a star-crossed romance and a political thriller, without really succeeding on any front.
Richard von Busack, MetroActive
If you can't take this movie for history, what may it be taken as? As romance it's not believable. Much of the history is censored, including the rumored "Operation Blacklist" involving the pressure from above to clear the names of the royal family.
Mike D'Angelo, AV Club
Offers a labored treatise on the Japanese national character, with endless speeches about honor, devotion, loyalty, and the people's reverence for their emperor as a human deity.
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
Other than the restrained romantic flashbacks, there's nothing in this movie that hasn't been done better before.
Brett Michel, Boston Phoenix
The real criminals are the screenwriters ...
Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
A decent history lesson--even if one told with a major dose of dramatic license--that's dragged down by a sappy, clumsily played romantic subplot.
Pete Hammond, Movieline
Powerful and brilliantly acted. Tommy Lee Jones is remarkable as General Douglas MacArthur in a side of World War II that has remained hidden.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
However turgid the storytelling, "Emperor" makes its historic points about a widely unknown 1945 wartime episode that played out in U.S occupied Japan after its surrender.
Jim Judy, Screen It!
It comes off as a fairly boring and on-the-nose experience that only history buffs might find intriguing and/or entertaining. (Complete Content Details for Parents also available)
Kevin Jagernauth, The Playlist
A modestly budgeted, respectfully executed post-WWII drama, the film is also entirely edgeless, and aside from a couple of swear words is ready to be shown in classrooms and on the History Channel in endless repeats.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Nate Z

When you're tasked with retelling an interesting part of history, a story that few are familiar with, it's best to get out of the way. You don't need to gussy it up if the history, itself, is interesting enough to warrant a movie. Suck is the case with Emperor, a drama… More
When you're tasked with retelling an interesting part of history, a story that few are familiar with, it's best to get out of the way. You don't need to gussy it up if the history, itself, is interesting enough to warrant a movie. Suck is the case with Emperor, a drama set in Japan weeks after their surrender to Allied forces in WWII. General Douglas MacArthur (a stodgy, scenery-chewing performance from Tommy Lee Jones) will rely upon the advice of one man (Matthew Fox) whether to try the Japanese emperor for war crimes for his possible involvement in the Pearl Harbor attack. The country is still recovering from the shock of nuclear bombs, its people could rebel against foreign occupiers, and the future of the country feels precariously on the brink. All of this makes for a good setting for a story, but Emperor doesn't stick this out. It keeps falling back to a lame love story about Fox's college days when he was smitten with a Japanese woman. So, now in Japan again, he desperately looks for her, having amber memories to times where he chased her around wooded areas (they must have done this a lot as a couple since it makes up the majority of his flashbacks). You keep thinking, isn't there a bigger story at work here than one guy's failed college romance? The rest of the movie is treated so cursory, with stiff-lip TV procedural attention, so that the details are all we get and the people get lost. Ultimately, Emperor is a movie that crushes us with the wrong history, misses out developing all the meaty stuff, and thinks what we truly want is Fox chasing after his lost love. It's a shame the movie is so boring while the history is not. Nate's Grade: C

Emperor (2013)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Nate Z

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