MOVIE · 1987
Empire of the Sun
DramaWar153 min
Christian Bale is Jim Graham, a privileged British boy in Shanghai whose sheltered life disappears when the Japanese invasion separates him from his parents and sends foreigners into internment camps. As Jim is forced to fend for himself, John Malkovich’s streetwise American sailor becomes an uneasy ally inside a world of hunger, barter, military routine, and constant uncertainty. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film follows the boy’s shift from pampered child to observant survivor, keeping close to his perspective as war transforms daily life around him.
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