Emperor

After Japan's surrender in 1945, General MacArthur takes charge of the American administration arriving in Tokyo. He gives General Bonner Fellers, a Japan specialist, ten days to determine whether Emperor Hirohito bears responsibility for the decisions of the war. Fellers is also looking for a woman he knew in Tokyo before it. The film is not interested in a war crimes inquiry. It is interested in the decision having already been made: whatever Fellers' report says, America needs the emperor in order to run the occupation. The film states that and then lays rather too much romance over it. The form is period drama: a ruined Tokyo, headquarters rooms, formal meetings. The meeting of MacArthur and Hirohito at the end, and the taking of that famous photograph, is its high point. Peter Webber directed. Part of it was shot in Japan and Japanese actors have significant roles. Tommy Lee Jones plays MacArthur and Matthew Fox plays Fellers. Jones's part is short and is what stays with you. Who it is for: viewers curious about post-war Japan and political history drama. Who it is not for: anyone wanting historical density. The romance dilutes the central question and the Japanese view is not opened far enough.