The Sun

Emperor Hirohito (Issei Ogata) prepares to go out of his palace and underground bunker for an official photoshoot with American photographers in The Sun. It is a telling event on the day he has to concede defeat to a patronising and confused General MacArthur and renounces his status as a God before once again ruling over his people as a constitutional monarch.

CHRIS: It falls often to the person who organises the ticketing for a festival to sneak one of their own secret passions in there, and hope people don't notice or go along hoping for the best. Such was the case with The Sun, the latest offering from Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov (Russian Ark) is the last in his trilogy of twentieth-century dictators, and centres on Emperor Hirohito of Japan in the last days of World War II. Despite the chequered production of the film - it is directed by a Russian, set in Japan and filmed in Japanese and English, financed by countries as diverse as Switzerland and Italy - it is an unmistakably Russian film; slow, graceful and ultimately a profound experience. Approaching it without a predilection for this type of cinema could, however, be hard going, is that what you found Scott?

SCOTT: Parts of this film were great, such as the 'what the?' dream sequence, the trip through the apocalyptic ruins of Tokyo and the atmosphere evoked in the dark rooms of the underground bunker. Too bad then that the film was quite boring. Maybe it was intentional, but I found myself nodding off watching the continual ennui of the Emperor's life. I hold to the belief that it is possible to show a person's life as boring onscreen, without in turn boring the audience. Boredom is not the greatest of all cinematic evils, but it does limit the enjoyment to be derived from a film. Even if this languid pace is characteristic of Russian cinema, that does not mean that it is excusable in my book.

CHRIS: Well, I'm going to commit that sin you mentioned and say that I think it was intentional that it was not so much boring, but very languid and I think very precise in depicting what it set out to show us. There are films that are boring through a turgid script and shoddy filmmaking (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers particularly) and then there are films like this one that have an incredible sense of pace, reflecting I think the life of Hirohito himself, and a sort of grandeur that refuses to be drawn in to traditional storytelling. The use of fade throughs where you would ordinarily see a simple cut I think is a telling reminder that Sokurov is a director and DoP who is prepared to push techincal boundaries in pursuit of meaning. It is particularly in the colouring of the film where this comes to the fore: the interior shots are very dull and dark, particularly at the end, whereas the post-war Tokyo outside is almost too bright to look at, bleached of any vibrant or conventional colour - the director employed a similar technique in Mother and Son and the other films of this trilogy. It is against this techincal precision that we see the character of Hirohito, brought vividly to life by Issei Ogata, occupying our screen for the best part of the film, and surely you'd agree Scott he's a very engaging characterisation?

SCOTT: I don't believe anyone would question Issei Ogata's ability as an actor, as he completely embodies the character of Hirohito. Rather my major reservation is how the character is utilised to make the same points again and again. About fifteen minutes into the film many of the major themes have already been expressed: the Emperor acts like a child, his is dissociated from reality, the Emperor lives in a world of trivialities etc. For the rest of the duration of the film Sokurov makes these same points, more and more unsubtley. It felt like a one-note movie to me. Coupled with the slow pace, I didn't feel it warrented the running time of nearly two hours. The structure may also be to blame: by only focusing on one day in the life of Hirohito there are long periods where nothing much really happens. Certain scenes are highly commendable, such as the photoshoot outside the palace, the dinner scene, and also the Emperor's interreaction with his wife. As a whole it just didn't hold up for me. Not to mention some of the horrible accents displayed by the American soldiers.

CHRIS: Yes, those Russian/American extras were a little off, weren't they... To be honest Scott, I think we might just have taken different views on every decision Sokurov made the film: for example, the decision to focus only on one day of the life of Hirohito I think was a most excellent one. Instead of presenting us with a sweeping biopic, we get a very precise film about the day that changed this man's life. It seems to me that this film is offering us a snapshot of the man, an intimate portrait of him on one day of his life, and perhaps that's what we're supposed to take away from it? The director has proven he can take on an epic scope in Russian Ark and everything in this film is so deliberate and calculated that I find it hard to believe that he would be making the same points over and over. I can more than appreciate that this film is going to have its detractors, but to me The Sun was a very interesting and accomplished film, if nothing particularly extraordinary, that humanises an important figure of the twentieth century. How much you get out of it I daresay will have to do with your patience more than anything else.

SCOTT: Patience may be a virtue, but no amount of patience was going to make The Sun riveting for me. I found Hirohito not interesting enough to warrant the screen time, at least as he was portrayed by Sokurov throughout the film. Just like the washed-out look of the exterior shots, the film seemed bland and tedious. It was also utterly pretentious, and only on a few occasions did the film qualify for the high praise that it seemed to think it deserved. This truly is elitist cinema. Maybe if you're really interested in Sokurov as a director, or are a Hirohito buff, then the film can be consistantly enjoyable. Otherwise you will more than likely find it slow, long and ultimately unrewarding.

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