Empire of the Sun is a 1987 coming of age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and Nigel Havers. Empire of the Sun tells the story of Jamie "Jim" Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai, to becoming a prisoner of war in Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center, a Japanese in...
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Empire of the Sun is a 1987 coming of age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and Nigel Havers. Empire of the Sun tells the story of Jamie "Jim" Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai, to becoming a prisoner of war in Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center, a Japanese internment camp, during World War II.
Harold Becker and David Lean were originally to direct before Spielberg came on board. Spielberg was attracted to directing Empire of the Sun because of a personal connection to Lean's films and World War II topics. He considers Empire of the Sun to be his most profound work on "the loss of innocence". While Ballard's novel had heroism as a theme, Spielberg once again created a film that dealt with children being separated from their parents. The film was critically acclaimed though it was not a box office...
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