The Excellent Emperor

Sunday, March 10, 2013
The movie, Emperor, hit theaters on Friday but in limited release. Only four theaters are showing it right now in theaters close to me. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's a film documenting the 10 day struggle of General Fellers to decide whether the Japanese emperor Hirohito should have been charged with war crimes after World War II. 

Dad, Kathryn, and I went to watch it this afternoon after church and lunch. I thought the movie was excellent. It was definitely a dialogue driven movie, which is usually not my style. It's Kathryn's. However, she was bored about half way through while I was riveted to the screen. Honestly, I thought it was captivating. Mattew Fox was polarizing as Fellers. I don't profess to be a great judge of acting, but I found him so real on camera. I could see the conflict in his eyes, the pent-up devastation, the "doing his job when he didn't want to," and the relief and acceptance of several things. 

There were multiple flashbacks in the movie, and while I found one a bit lengthy, they all served a purpose and added layers to the movie. The color of the movie was intriguing and there were certain camera angles that I found different and refreshing. I know it sounds weird for me to be talking about all of this, but I noticed things like that occasionally as I did in this movie. 

It wasn't a funny movie, or even a movie with "great lines," but it was a solid, and as far as I could tell, fairly accurate portrayal of some events during that time. I was thoroughly intrigued and look forward to watching it again. 

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