As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.
It's all done with care and authentic Japanese locations ... But there's scant drama.
– Trevor Johnston,
Time Out,
1 Oct 2013
rotten:
A stodgy movie that mixes dubious history with a cliched, Madame Butterfly romance story, set in the period immediately following Japan's surrender in 1945.
– Liam Lacey,
Globe and Mail,
29 Mar 2013
rotten:
Emperor falls prey to the temptations endemic to historical docudrama: the desire to pack a miniseries' worth of events into one feature-length film, with romance tossed in for added appeal.
Offers a labored treatise on the Japanese national character, with endless speeches about honor, devotion, loyalty, and the people's reverence for their emperor as a human deity.