Saturday, August 22, 2009

Empire of the Sun


I saw this movie when it came out, really liked it then, but never saw the movie again until very recently. I had forgotten most of the details about it, but have always been haunted by the beautiful theme music. It's called Suo Gân, and turns out, it's a Welsh lullaby, and is performed in the movie by the Ambrosian Junior Choir. English Boys Choir music turns me into a quivering mass of jelly - completely at its mercy. Yes, a weakness. You can hear in the trailer posted here, or on the music playlist on my sidebar.

Empire of the Sun (1987) [IMDB] [wiki]
dir: Steven Spielberg
starring: Christian Bale

There are other stars in it, such as John Malkovich, but to me they are all supporting actors. 13 year old Christian Bale is the one with the leading role. It's a semi-autobiographical story about an English boy from an aristocratic family living in Shanghai who is taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese, and spent several years in an internment camp. He is completely on his own in there, having gotten separated from his parents during the attack.

The movie has all of Steven Spielberg's magic, and his great skill at directing children. Christian Bale gives an absolutely incredible performance here, just amazing. If you haven't seen it, I recommend giving it a view.

2 comments:

enigma4ever said...

I love this music and the movie-I had no idea he was the actor..wow..

stunning..

Blueberry said...

I was stunned when I realized that it was him too. I'm a fan of his, but would like to see him take more parts where there's development of the character. Batman is fine, but Terminator and Public Enemies didn't go deep enough into the characters IMHO. Now, American Psycho, Rescue Dawn, The Machinist, The Prestige, 3:10 to Yuma... those make me want to see all his movies.