The Sun (Solntse) is a 2005 Russian biographical film directed by Alexander Sokurov, depicting Japanese Emperor Hirohito during the final days of World War II. It is the third film in a trilogy by the Russian director, that includes Taurus, about Vladimir Lenin and Moloch, about Adolf Hitler. The film was entered in the 55th Berlin International Film Festival. It received generally positive reviews from critics aside form the negatives. Certainly not for the impatient, Aleksandr Sokurov's deliberately paced look at Hirohito in the waning days of World War II is both enlightening and admirable in its restraint. The Sun has flaws such as an awkward acting style, a claustrophobic setting and a portrayal of Hirohito that lacks subtlety. The actors seem uncomfortable in their roles, which makes the film feel awkward. Issei Ogata's portrayal of Hirohito is well-rehearsed but lacks subtlety. Emperor Showa's constant mouth movements are distracting and disgusting. Vision says the film was more of a comedy than a serious drama about one of the worst dictators in history. The sets are described as looking like U-Boat corridors, war-ravaged alien planets and doll house rooms. The film portrays Hirohito as an idiot-savant who doesn't seem to understand his role in Japanese imperialism. But wasn't Hirohito just like this? He was a marine biologist at best. The film is long-winded and awfully directed. Some say the film is "arty" and that those who like it are doing so to look trendy.

This film was good 👍🏼

Oddly hypnotic and fascinating.

A heavyweight masterpiece in a lightweight digital form.

Sokurov at his most personal, beautiful and haunting.

Interesting piece of story or history ?!

Americans unreflectively view other countries through Hollywood filters, so it takes (for example) seeing the end of the Japanese-American war through a post-Soviet Russian lens to remind us of subjectivity in history.

great cinamatography

A riveting portrait of a most powerful man at a crossroads. Works as a fascinating companion piece to Oliver Hirschbiegel's excellent Der Untergang.

A fascinating insight into the life of a human God. The Sun touches on cultural Japanese tradition colliding with modernity, without ever ignoring the realities of it's historic context.

Like a long, pretentious play, recorded on film with absolutely no amendments for the new medium. Very hard to sit through, with some interesting moments, great acting by the Japanese actors, horrible and lazy American performances.

Sokurov's effort to make this film perfect shows in every scene, and the output is an emotional and powerful film for the viewers as well as the characters on screen.

Was Emperor Hirohito really a Chaplinesque figure who wandered his way into what is really the weirdest job in Asia? Maybe so...maybe so...

Rich dramatization of the last few hours of WWII from Hirohito's viewpoint is rich, simple, and evocative. The meeting with McCarther is classic, and rarely has the situation of two cultures coming together been depicted so well.

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Elegiac portrait of Japan's Emperor Hirohito at the end of World War II. A fascinating character study, portraying the Emperor as a sheltered child, faced with the impossible task of sacrificing his dignity and and the pride of his people by renouncing his status as a deity in order to allow the Allies to land in Japan and end the war without further aggression. Strikingly filmed in muted tones.

Though listed on IMDB.com as a 2005 release, Aleksandr Sokurov’s dazzling THE SUN has only now made its way to American shores, and cinephiles everywhere should be thankful that it has. FULL REVIEW: http://filmandfelt.com/musings/?p=1406

I don't care if it's 2005 or 2009, this movie is not one of the best films of the year. Usually a movie like this, in which pacing and conventional structure is thrown out the window, finds strength in it's look and style. But the cinematography was one of the more distracting elements of the film.

"The Sun" is a surprisingly lightweight movie, considering its setting at the end of World War II. The tone is deeply ironic, wondering how Emperor Hirohito(Issei Ogata) could allow the atrocities of an inhuman war to be fought in his name if he was so cultured, educated and interested in the sciences which clashes with the divinity forced upon him.(Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Hirohito just a figurehead?) In fact, his palace design owes more to Western than Japanese ideas. Upon his desk are the busts of Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin and Napoleon.(Well, the last one did not turn out so well.) In fact, Hirohito seems positively hurt at American anti-immigration legislation, partially blaming that for the war. And as General Douglas MacArthur(Robert Dawson) meets with Hirohito and does not find the devil he was expecting, the emperor discovers a world devastated just outside of his door that he was hardly aware of since most of his learning comes from books and tutors.

Hirohito may have plunged his country into ruin, sending millions to their deaths while he dicked around in his bunker studying hermit crabs and writing bad poetry, but can you blame him? After all, he's just a man-child with delusions of grandeur, born into a family of similar folks. He can't dress himself or plan out his daily routines, yet he must be treated as a supernatural deity given flesh. There's always an adjutant hovering around to record every last bit of drivel he babbles aloud, making sure to notate when the Emperor blames his military failure on a law passed in California in 1924, or gives any number of boring, rambling speeches with no point. Aleksandr Sokurov captures the dying gasp of the once-magnificent Empire of Japan as a series of aesthetically cold two-character scenes taking place in dark rooms. It's an intelligent, low-key counterpoint to the hysterical "The Downfall", which relied too much on the off-kilter Bruno Ganz and endless scenes of Germans committing suicide. Here, all the horrors occur offscreen except for a surrealistic nightmare involving flying fish transforming Tokyo into a hellish firestorm. We examine the inherent evil in inaction, contrasted with the emotionally stunted existence of the ruling class. Cinematography is reminiscent of "Letters from Iwo Jima", with its washed out, grainy, predominately grey color scheme. Scenes outside the Imperial Palace are masterful depictions of total ruin. Amazingly enough, the American characters (namely General MacArthur) aren't portrayed as heroic, though neither are they Ugly Westerners. "The Sun" is as much about cultural obsolescence and the rise of Capitalism as it is about war or mentally deficient emperors. Stirring stuff.