Product Details

• Actors: Robert Dawson, Kaori Momoi, Shiro Sano, Shinmei Tsuji
• Directors: Aleksandr Sokurov
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English, Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Lorber Films
• DVD Release Date: June 1, 2010
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003C9VF96
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,086 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Sun" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

SUN - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Millenium's First Work of Genius, December 20, 2006

By 

R. J MOSS (Alice Springs, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sun ( Solntse ) ( Il Sole ) ( Le Soleil ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

Sokurov has superceeded even his recent achievements with this simply awesome piece. Ogata's staggering performance as Emporer Hirohito is the film's pivot. Not a moment of exaggeration, mannerism or overstated camerawork. The interplay of a gloved hand, of light catching the lower rim of one eye, the regimented deep space of the palace, the ambient short-wave sound track in Hirohito's study as he jots off a haku - the list is long. An apocolyptic dream shakes him from a noonday nap. It's one of cinema's most impressive dream sequences, in keeping with the Emporer's biological passions. Later, he scans a print of Durer's,'Four Riders' which, when the camera pounces on him from behind, mysteriously enlargens so that Hirohito's head swims in its detail. As a sustained study of profound pathos, the film has no equal. The Emporer's Chaplinesque antics before the GI's cameras in his front garden are unspeakably humiliating. The annihilation of the Empire, and with it the sombre lifestyle, liberates him from the absurdly suffocating protocols that attended his deification. The film ends with him in hand with his wife, imprisioned in his palace, but 'free' to enjoy the pleasures of his children. As a raid on the inarticulate, a devastation, a change of beliefs, the abiding state of the Emporer's mind is evinced in his inability to speak. He goes to speak, the words won't come; unmitigated shock has jettisoned his tongue from his mind.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Subdued, Contemplative Examination of Japanese Emperor's Surrender., June 5, 2010

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sun (DVD)

"The Sun" is the third film in Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov's tetralogy about powerful political figures as they suffer personally from their poor decisions. The first two films were about Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. "The Sun" is about Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, just after the Japanese surrender in 1945. The Emperor (Issey Ogata) is under house arrest in a building on the grounds of the Imperial Palace while the Allies decide what to do with him. He is attended by a chamberlain (Shiro Sano) and an elderly manservant, who try to preserve his normal routine. He is briefed by his ministers on the state of the war effort, he studies marine biology, takes a nap, writes his son, sees a guest, and meets General Douglas MacArthur (Robert Dawson), Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, for the first time.

The way Sokurov presents this series of events gives the impression that it all happened in one day. Looking closely, that is not explicit but implicit, though the events actually took place over the course of months. There is much debate over the degree to which the Emperor was in control of the Japanese military and therefore responsible, or not, for "war crimes". "The Sun" takes the view that was adopted by the United States and its Allies, and therefore by the Japanese, after the war: Hirohito was isolated, easily manipulated by those more ambitious than himself, and a bit clueless. He was just a figurehead, and the Allies wanted him to continue to be so as Japan recovered from the devastation of war. Presented this way, Hirohito seems a lot like King Louis XVI of France or Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Sokurov paints Hirohito as a well-meaning fool who has an embarrassing nervous tick, is preoccupied with his interest in marine biology, and summons a scientist whose research institute has been destroyed to discuss the Northern Lights, all while Japan is in crisis and the Emperor must contemplate the implications of renouncing his divine origins. But Sokurov respects the Emperor, because he placed the future of his nation above his own pride. He surrendered. He did what was asked of him by his conquerors to smooth the transition to an occupied and new Japan. I suppose this would be true whether or not he was responsible for war crimes.

The Emperor does everything with slow deliberation, which sets the film's pace. It's slow. Issey Ogata looks remarkably like Hirohito, though I don't know if the nervous tick is accurate. The content of conversations between Hirohito and MacArthur is uncertain and may have been fictionalized. Although Ogata's performance is impressive, "The Sun" would not have much meaning were these not true events. So veracity is an essential component of the film's worth, and I don't think Sokurov was concerned with history so much as his impression of the Emperor's character at a time of crisis. The subdued, dreamy cinematography, also by Sokurov, is admirable, as is Ogata's portrayal, but I wouldn't take "The Sun" to be history. In English and Japanese.

The DVD (Kino/Lorber 2010): Bonus features are "Production Notes by Aleksandr Sokurov" (text) taken from an interview with the director, a Russian theatrical trailer (1 min), and a Stills Gallery of 19 production stills. English subtitles are available for the film.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emperor Hirohito and General Douglas MacArthur, March 17, 2009

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sun (DVD)

Did he or didn't he? And if so, how much? These are the eternal questions asked when discussing Emperor Hirohito and his role in WWII. Was he an active participant in the war, encouraging his armies to conquer and with a powerful seat on the war council, or was he nothing more than an impotent figurehead, kept isolated and ignorant of world events.

Herbert P. Bix's Pulitzer Prize winning Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan falls firmly in the "he did" category. The book paints a picture of a capable and dangerous man who was the driving force behind Japan's failed wars of conquest, but who then allowed himself to be re-sold as an incompetent fool by General MacArthur in order to avoid trial for war crimes and be further used as a tool for MacArthur's hold on Japan.

This film, "The Sun" (original title "Solntse"), answers the question in the opposite. Here. Hirohito is as history imagines him. The Emperor is so isolated and protected from daily affairs, that he is barely able to hold a regular conversation, and has no awareness of the impact of his decisions. He is a strange and unique creature, brought up told that he is a living God, but wondering on his own if this is possible, due to his very human body. He does what he is told, follows formalities and ceremony without question, and has little connection with the world outside his palace. This is the doddering fellow who was filmed wandering around Disneyland with Mickey Mouse long after the war was over, assuring the American people that Japan was completely neutered.

Actor Ogata Issei (Tony Takitani) creates a complete portrait of Emperor Hirohito. He gives a nuanced and remarkable performance, and brings "The Sun" to a higher level. Robert Dawson's General Douglas MacArthur is not so perfect an illusion, but is still excellent as the tough military man trying to understand and work with a bizarre world leader who is as interested in Marine Biology as the destruction and surrender of his country.

It is fitting that the director of "The Sun" is Russian, Aleksandr Sokurov. Russia had a 3rd-party perspective on the US/Japanese conflict, remaining mostly on the fringes. I highly doubt a film like this could be made by either an American or a Japanese director. They would be too inclined to put their countries point of view into the film. With Sokurov, the viewer is allowed to remain neutral and marvel at world events. "The Sun" is the third part of Sokurov's WWII trilogy, following Moloch and "Taurus."

"The Sun" is in Japanese, with English subtitles.