Sokurov, who also acted as director of photography, films the character and his surroundings with the eye of a newly arrived visitor to another world.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Working from Yuri Arabov and Jeremy Noble's script, Sokurov has a wonderful time not simply with Hirohito and history, but with his filmmaking, which can be oblique to the point of being stultifying. Here he plays with scale.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 1, 2010

Alexander Sokurov's The Sun demands and rewards patience.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 25, 2010

Finds beauty, madness and outright bizarreness in the sight of a lost, slightly freakish man attempting to understand his altering reality.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 7, 2009

The Sun took four years to reach American theaters, but the long delay hasn't diminished the force of Sokurov's experimentation.

| Original Score: A | Nov 19, 2009

First shown at the Berlin Film Festival four years ago, The Sun is finally receiving its welcome American theatrical release, which means that one of the best movies of 2005 is now also one of the best of 2009.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 19, 2009

Though he successfully humanizes Hirohito, who is shown happily shedding his divinity, Sokurov doesn't entirely exonerate him.

| Nov 17, 2009

As usual, Sokurov's unhurried pacing will test the patience of more fidgety viewers, although the script is more accessible than some of his recent efforts.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2006

While The Sun staunchly refuses to pass judgement on a figure considered by many to be a war criminal, it does essay a vivid portrait of the utter experiential vacuum that attends the stupefyingly powerful: the Emperor has no clue.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 10, 2006

The Sun may be a kind of cinematic masterpiece, it's just not a morally defensible one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 10, 2006

Sokurov reveals a man trying desperately, though honorably, to avoid an inevitable turn of the tide.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 6, 2005

The measured direction can feel sluggish as the camera refuses to cut away from lengthy scenes of people getting dressed or filing out of rooms, but Ogata's multi-layered performance more than compensates.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 10, 2005

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2005