Touches You

best movie i've ever seen.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It seems that historical movies like this are getting harder to find. It is an movie about an American general in Japan just after their surrender. He has an assignment to determine if Hirohito should be tried as a war criminal.

Emperor mixes fact with fiction and introduces a clichéd love story subplot which detracts from the film.The film follows US Army Brigadier General Bonner Frank Fellers (Matthew Fox) who spent time in Japan before the outbreak of the war and ordered by General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) to decide whether Emperor Hirohito regarded as a living god by the Japanese should be tried and hung as a war criminal. In the mean time the US Forces are rounding up the guilty men who were in power in Japan when it allied itself with the Germans.Mixed with this interesting aspect of the plot is a dull romance angle of trying to find a Japanese student he fell in love with in a messed up post war Japan which has just been nuked.The machinations and politicking regarding whether the Emperor should be tried is fascinating and helped by a broad, brash performance by Lee Jones.Matthew Fox though is rather hindered by the script which fails to make his character interesting because of the fictionalized part of the story. The subplot introduces characters in flashbacks that explains why Japan is the country it is to help us understand why it did what it did in the war.It is a shame that the film dilutes a momentous story to make it rather anodyne.

From a historical perspective, Emperor is a very fascinating film. When it comes to the War in the Pacific, we seldom hear anything about Emperor Hirohito and the matter of whether he will be tried or not. From a movie standpoint, this also happens to be a good film. It's emotional, has a great script, and incredible acting. I was a little surprised with the romantic subplot, since I was not expecting that but I enjoyed it.Peter Webber's film takes place right the Japanese surrender in World War Two. General Douglas MacArthur has a tough choice here. Does he exonerate or incriminate Emperor Hirohito knowing full well if he does try Hirohito, they may be a bloody riot on his hands.In my opinion, I found the acting to be excellent. Tommy Lee Jones was fantastic as MacArthur and I believe he captured the essence of MacArthur. Matthew Fox as General Bonner Fellers also does a good job as he puts together a report stating his beliefs about Hirohito.Overall, Emperor is a great film, especially from a historical perspective. Obviously being a Hollywood film, not everything is entirely accurate. But they do a good job in getting the story across. This is a story about a decision that could change lives and even cultures. A powerful film indeed. I rate this film 9/10.

This nice movie tells a fictionalized account based on the actual life story of US Army Brigadier General Bonner Frank Fellers who served under General Douglas MacArthur . On the staff of General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy lee Jones), the de facto ruler of Japan as Supreme Commander of the occupying forces, a leading Japanese expert, General Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox) is charged with reaching a decision of historical importance: should Emperor Hirohito be tried and hanged as a war criminal? Interwoven is the story of Fellers' love affair with Aya (Eriko Hatsune), a Japanese exchange student he had met years previously in the U.S. Memories of Aya and his quest to find her in the ravaged post-war landscape help Fellers to discover both his wisdom and his humanity and enable him to come to the momentous decision that changed the course of history and the future of two nations.This is a good drama war with emotion , suspense , thrills , culture clashes , and historical events . The picture contains a marvelous story of love and understanding set amidst the tensions and uncertainties of the days immediately following the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. Excellent cast gives good acting as Fox who plays Bonner Fellers, a general who's sent to Japan to decide if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged for war crimes ; starring alongside him is Eriko Hatsune as Aya Shimada, a woman Fellers romanced years earlier, and Tommy Lee Jones as legendary Us military figure General Douglas MacArthur. The movie displays a colorful as well as adequate photography by Stuart Dryburgh . Emotive and evocative musical score by Alex Heffes . The flick was professionally directed by Peter Webber (Hannibal , The girl with a pearl earring). This true life story was one worthy of big-screen treatment .The picture is well based on true events , these are the followings : After the war, Fellers played a major role in the occupation of Japan. Among his duties was liaison between HQ and the Imperial Household. Soon after occupation began, General Fellers wrote several influential memoranda concerning why it would be advantageous for the occupation, reconstruction of Japan, and U.S. long range interests to keep the Emperor in place if he was not clearly responsible for war crimes. He met with the major defendants of the Tokyo tribunal. In their research and analysis of events and considerable controversy about the time period, according to historians Herbert Bix and John W. Dower, Fellers—under an assignment by the code name "Operation Blacklist"—allowed them to coordinate their stories to exonerate Emperor Hirohito and all members of his family. This was at the direction of MacArthur, now head of SCAP, who had decided that there was to be no criminal prosecution of the Emperor and his family. He will question the accused Class -A War Criminals such as Wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, Former Prime Minister Konoe, and Koichi Kido while confronting prejudice from a resentful populace and other American soldiers. General Fellers, who came from a Religious Society of Friends family (commonly known as Quakers) and attended the Quaker-affiliated Earlham College, was instrumental in the selection of Elizabeth Vining, an American Quaker educator, as tutor to the Emperor's children. Ms. Vining was followed after 4 years by another Quaker educator, Esther Rhoads.In 1971, Emperor Hirohito conferred on Fellers the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure "in recognition of your long-standing contribution to promoting friendship between Japan and the United States."