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Ernest John Gomez

Soc18

EMPIRE OF THE SUN
Synopsis:

The story begins in 1941, just prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Jamie Graham is a precocious and privileged boy living
with his parents in Shanghai. His father is a rich British businessman and the family lives in a mansion on the outskirts of the city and
Jamie attends an exclusive PREP school. Much has been done to shelter Jamie from the Chinese culture that surrounds him and he is
quite spoiled, treating the family's servants with utmost disrespect. Very interested in aviation, Jamie harbors an interest in one day
joining the Japanese air force, a dream that his father finds disturbing.

The family attends a costume ball thrown by one of the father's business associates, Mr. Maxton. While there, Jamie runs off to fly
with his wooden glider. He finds the wrecked fuselage of a fighter plane near an abandoned airfield. While he plays with the
controls, his glider slips out of sight behind a mound. He scrambles up the mound and finds an encampment of Japanese soldiers.
While he stares at them, his father and Maxton appear and call him down, specifically telling Jamie not to run. As they walk away
and the Japanese soldiers return to their camp, Jamie remarks that they "seem to be waiting for something to happen". Maxton
suggests that Graham take his family to their apartment in the city and seek an exit from Shanghai, most likely by sea.

The family returns to their Shanghai apartment. Early the next morning, Jamie spots a Japanese warship in the harbor
communicating with land forces using flashing lights. Jamie begins using his own flashlight from his room when an explosion throws
him back from his window. The Japanese move into the city in full force. Jamie's family is able to make it to their limousine but are
unable to get very far due to the crowds of people filling the streets. They exit the limo and find themselves crushed and separated
among the crowd. Jamie's mother manages to hold on to Jamie when separated from her husband but Jamie lets go of her hand
when he drops his toy plane. He sees his mother being helplessly pushed away and she bids him to return to their mansion. Shortly
after Jamie witnesses fighting between the Chinese resistance and the Japanese army, seeing a man die in front of him for the first
time. The resistance fighters are quickly found and killed.

Jamie arrives home to find the house empty. He sees signs of a struggle in his parents bedroom, perhaps indicating that his mother
was taken from the house by force. He hears noise downstairs and finds the maid of the house with the other Chinese servant,
stealing furniture. When Jamie demands to know what they're doing, the former calmly walks over and slaps his face and leaves.

Jamie stays in the house several months (indicated by the falling level of water in the swimming pool), eating whatever food he can
find. When his food and water run out, he rides his bike back to Shanghai to find that the Japanese have long since cemented their
control of the city. Jamie tries to surrender to a passing battalion of marching soldiers but they ignore him and his bike is stolen. A
homeless Chinese boy notices Jamie and tries to call him over. Jamie refuses and runs through the streets and back alleys, people
ignoring his cries for help. The Chinese boy catches and beats him, taking whatever Jamie has on him. Jamie manages to break free
and runs into the street, nearly being hit by a truck. The truck's driver, Frank, scares Jamie's tormentor off and takes Jamie with him
to an abandoned freighter where Frank's friend, Basie, is cooking rice. Basie deftly searches Jamie for anything of value, taking
Jamie's aviator sunglasses and a GOLD COIN he'd found in the swimming pool. He also gives Jamie a new name, "Jim" and coldly
serves Jamie Frank's share of the rice he'd made. The next day Frank and Basie set about trying to "sell" Jim to anyone who needs a
manual laborer. When they're unable to sell Jim they decide to leave him to the streets as an orphan. Jim pleads with them to let
him stay, even offering them the pickings of rich houses outside the city. The three travel to Jim's old house where the lights are on
and music, Jim's mother's favorite tune, can be heard. However, the house has been seized by the Japanese, who march out
immediately and capture all three. As Jim is held back, Basie is severely beaten.

Basie and Jim find themselves in a holding center for foreign prisoners in Shanghai. They spend a significant amount of time there;
Jim discovers that the other kids there will steal openly from him to survive, a tactic he also learns from Basie. One day, when the
Japanese come to select prisoners for transport to an official camp, Basie is chosen, who boards the truck and ignores Jim's pleas to
take him along. Jim begs the driver to take him along and finds that the driver is unsure of the route to the camp. Jim assures the
driver that he can guide them to the camp, which is near his parents' old country club. The truck driver throws the annoying Jim into
the truck and they leave.

The truck arrives at Soochow Creek Interment camp, which is situated right next to an airbase construction site. As the prisoners get
off the truck they are ordered to carry white stones up to the spot where a runway is being laid. Jim breaks off from the group,
seeing a work area for Japanese Zero airplanes. As he touches one of them, a guard, Nagata, prepares to shoot him. A group of three
Japanese pilots approaches and Jamie salutes them; Nagata lowers his rifle when the pilots return Jamie's salute.

The story jumps ahead to the Summer of 1945, near the end of the war. Jim has etched out a considerably active life for himself
involving an intricate trade network among the other British prisoners and even Nagata himself, who has since been invested as the
commanding officer of the camp. While dropping off Nagata's freshly polished boots, Jim slyly steals a bar of soap from the sergeant.
Jim's last stop is at the camp infirmary, where he aides the camp doctor, Rawlins, in performing CPR on a dying patient. The woman
moves her eyes slightly, seemingly looking at Jim, who now believes he's brought her back to life. Jim appears to lose control and
Rawlins is forced to throw Jim off the dead woman. Rawlins has been schooling Jim in Latin and classical poetry, but is unable to
teach Jim to recognize when his efforts go too far. Jim leaves the hospital and goes to the American prisoners barracks, delivering
the soap to Basie. Basie shows Jim his latest project which involves laying snares in the marsh next to his barracks, hoping to catch
pheasants for next Thanksgiving. Basie also makes a deal with Jim: if Jim lays the snares, Basie will let Jim move into the American
dorm and take him along if he finds a way to escape the camp.

That night the airbase is bombed by American pilots, who drop a bomb very close to the prison camp. In retaliation, Nagata and a
few of his officers begin breaking windows in the British and American barracks. When Nagata moves on the infirmary, Rawlins tries
to stop him. The sergeant begins to violently and mercilessly beat the doctor. Jim steps in, smashing two windows and begging
Nagata in Japanese to cease his punishment, which he does. Rawlins, in gratitude for Jim's actions, gives Jim a pair of two tone golf
shoes that belonged to a recently deceased patient.

The next day, Jim steals away from the camp to the marsh near the American dorm. Waiting for the tower guard to sit down and
leaving his golf spikes behind, he crawls into the marsh to place Basie's snares. However, Basie has another motive for planting the
traps: he is using Jim to test the marsh for mines. Moments later, Nagata appears and yells at the guard to take up his post. Nagata
finds Jim's shoes and wades into the marsh after him. He is just about to find Jim when a Japanese boy from the airbase calls the
sergeant over; the boy has lost his toy glider in the marsh and Nagata retrieves it for him. As the two walk away, the boy salutes Jim,
whom he'd seen all along. Jim is given his own space in the American dorm, much to Frank's chagrin, who has to give up some of his
own personal space for the young upstart.

One day, Basie and another American prisoner, Dainty, are going over potential escape plans using a cork and needle as a compass
(provided them by Jim & his pilfering network). Nagata shows up unexpectedly and sees how comfortably Basie has been living. He
also finds the bar of soap stolen by Jim and becomes instantly furious, beating Basie severely. Basie leaves Jim in charge of his
possessions, knowing he'll be sent to the infirmary. Jim visits him there after seeing through his binoculars that Basie has been given
the mosquito net usually reserved for dying patients. (Basie tells him that he merely bribed Dr. Rawlins for it.) During their
conversation, Basie suddenly asks Jim why he isn't back at the dorm minding Basie's things; Jim says that the older and larger men in
the dorm took everything, Jim being fairly helpless to stop them. Ashamed, Jim leaves the American dorm shortly after Basie returns
from the hospital.

Now essentially homeless, Jim awakes one morning after falling asleep on the grounds of the camp and sees a kamikaze ritual taking
place at the airbase. Moved by the ceremony, he begins to sing "Suo Gn" a Welsh folk song from his childhood days of singing in
the choir. As the planes take off one suddenly explodes in midair; a squadron of American P-51 Mustang fighters have arrived and
begin to destroy the airbase. Exhilarated, Jim climbs to the top of a bombed out building to watch the battle and sees one of the
American pilots waving at him. Jim begins to scream in joy. As the battle continues, Rawlins, fearing for Jim's safety, yells for the boy
to come down. Jim doesn't listen and Rawlins climbs after him, finally catching him as the battle winds down. He yells at Jim to
return to reality and Jim breaks down, saying he can't recall what his parents looked like. Rawlins carries him down, Jim blankly
reciting the poem that Rawlins had been teaching him.

The next day, the camp is evacuated by Nagata. The prisoners are told that there will be food waiting for them further inland and a
march is quickly started. As they leave, Jim sees the young Japanese boy he'd befriended through the camp wire taking the
ceremonial drink of the kamikaze pilots. The boy jumps into his plane but cannot take off because the plane refuses to fire up.

The group reaches Nantao Stadium, many miles away, where the Japanese spoils from Shanghai are stored. Among the automobiles
there, Jim finds his father's old limo. After being told that there's no food or water there, Jim stays behind with Mrs. Victor, a woman
who acted as a guardian to Jim back in Soochow. Jim tells her to act dead so they can stay, however, Mrs. Victor actually dies. As a
devastated Jim sits with her body, he sees a gigantic flash of light to the east, one of the atomic bombs dropped by the United States
on Japan. Jim believes it is Mrs. Victor's ascending soul, however, he hears a radio broadcast later that reports about the new
weapon and the surrender of the Japanese Empire, ending the war.

As Jim staggers back to Soochow he notices large canisters falling from the sky on parachutes. They are from the Red Cross and
contain food and other supplies. Jim gathers what he can and returns to the prison camp. There he finds the young Japanese boy
from the airbase, who is angrily slashing at the marsh with his samurai sword. Recognizing Jim, he stumbles away crying. Jim hears
an engine revving and sees a car break through a wall of fire. In the car are Basie and a couple of other men he'd joined up with who
are looting the relief containers. The Japanese boy offers Jim a mango and is about to help Jim cut it with his katana when he is shot
by one of Basie's companions. As the man rushes over Jim flips him into the marsh and leaps on him, wildly punching him. Basi e pulls
Jim off, who turns his attention to the Japanese boy. He tries to revive him using CPR but the boy is clearly dead and Basie again pulls
Jim off. As he tries to soothe Jim, Jim pulls away, a crazed look in his eye; Jim's experiences during the war of stealing, death and fear
have finally pushed him onto the path to adulthood. Basie decides to leave Jim behind, knowing Jim will survive. Jim stays in the
camp a bit longer, riding a bike like he did in childhood and laughing. He is found by a U.S. Army unit, to whom he "surrenders".

Jim returns to Shanghai and is housed in an orphanage for child war prisoners. The kids are assembled by the nuns for a group of
parents who have returned to Shanghai following the war; Jim's parents are among them. They wade through the sea of children,
not able to find Jim at first, but spot him after a few moments. Jim, scarred from his experiences and still in shock, doesn't believe
his own eyes as he recognizes his mother by feeling her and eventually collapses in her loving arms


MY INSIGHTS ON THE MOVIE:

This is a movie I've loved since I was a kid. I saw the movie for the first time about 20-something years ago when my family and I
were residing in Kuwait during the late 80s and early 90s. I was moved by the film and deeply touched by it and remember
watching it in our living room with my parents along with my little brother. Even the soundtrack of the film called Suo Gan gave
me goose bumps which truly made a lasting impression. I admire the boys character, demeanor, and exuberance in spite of the
wars wrath and horror in front of his eyes. More so since, at that time, I was also a kid looking for adventure and what more
better place to use one youths imagination, a chaotic world like war that we only see in movies. I actually felt like I was the boy in
the movie trying and acting to be brave and courageous living independently only to find out that young boys can enjoy war but up
to a point. The movie definitely left me inspired but made me realize that war in any form for that matter, is for real and its just
fortunate that I didnt live during those times of chaos and violence, helped me learn to appreciate the life that I have much more
and make the most out of it. Ive seen the movie a couple times now, and probably will see it again a few times, and I surely hope I
could get to watch it with my little boy someday to impart the same valuable lessons that I learned when I was once like him.

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