Review – Empire of the Sun

Steven Spielberg works his special “magic” on the standard prison camp movie formula, centering the tale around a kid. Our hero – played by a very young Christian Bale in his first major movie role – gets stranded in Shanghai at the beginning of World War Two. After ending up in Japanese custody, he’s placed in a camp with other British and American civilian prisoners. It’s practically a light comedy compared to Schindler’s List, and it’s also a bit hard on the Asian characters (the Japanese might have had it coming, but the Chinese look bad as well). But they spent a lot of money on it, so it’s a good-looking if somewhat dull production. Mildly amusing