“Emperor,” which is directed by Peter Webber, written by David Klass and Vera Blasi, and based on the book “His Majesty’s Salvation” by Shiro Okamoto, is supposedly a based-on-the-truth historical drama about MacArthur’s reign over Japan and his interactions with protégé U.S. Army officer Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox, of “Alex Cross”). The year is 1945, and Fellers has been sent to Japan to assist MacArthur (Jones, of “Lincoln,” “Hope Springs,” “Men in Black 3,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger”) in his role as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. MacArthur tasks Fellers, his Chief of Psychological Operations, with one integral responsibility: determining whether Emperor Hirohito (Takatarô Kataoka) should stand trial as a war criminal for his actions during WWII. (Remember that Pearl Harbor happened during Hirohito’s reign.)
Hirohito was known as the “God King,” and whether he had manipulated that role to definitely commit war crimes and knowingly lead people to their deaths was up to Fellers and MacArthur. If he did, then he would need to stand trial. But if not, then MacArthur’s reign in Japan, and Hirohito’s role there, would need to be a little more finessed.
With that narrative alone, “Emperor” would be fairly straightforward—and could possibly work as a thriller, with Fellers following some kind of trail of Hirohito’s actions during his 10-day timeframe. (Spoiler alert: If you know anything about WWII, though, you’ll know MacArthur stripped Hirohito of military control, but didn’t actually put him on trial.) Or if the film would even be more interesting, from a nerdy point of view, if it was solely about the mechanics of reconstructing Japan, and how MacArthur and others worked to build democracy within the country, invigorated an industrial economy, and conducted other humanitarian reforms. Either of those narratives would be better than what the film actually becomes, which is half-post-war film, half-romance. And the film is totally bogged down by its refusal to commit to either.
Of course, there have been other films that follow this kind of format (“Pearl Harbor” did a terrible job of it, while “Snow Falling on Cedars” was a bit more tolerable). But “Emperor” handles the dichotomy with very little finesse, saddling Fellers with a love affair with a Japanese schoolteacher (Eriko Hatsune) whom he’s desperate to find. He remembers her with a far-off, misty gaze, and their time together was dreamy and beautiful, and although Fellers is supposed to be an expert on psychological warfare, he’s a sucker when it comes to this woman. It’s a jarring transition that makes for an uneven character, and Fox isn’t up to the challenge. In contrast to his overacting in “Alex Cross,” in “Emperor” he seems barely there, relying far too often on repetitive actions (when his face morphs into a dopey grin, you know another flashback is coming) than anything distinctive. His lack of originality is consistently distracting.
Oh, and if you do any digging (or, you know, a simple Google search), you’ll realize that Fellers, in real life, was a husband the entire time he was in Japan; his wife was named Dorothy, and they were married in 1925 at West Point. I’m not saying he couldn’t have had some random affair beforehand, but when the entire plot of “Emperor” hinges on this relationship as part of the reasoning for his actions when it comes to Hirohito, the fact that it’s false becomes a major flaw.
There are other issues with “Emperor”—dragging plotting, an inconsistent tone, horrible narration that beats us over the head with the idea that Japan is a country with cultural “shades of grey,” etc.—but Fox’s performance and character arc are the most egregious. You can forgive Jones for bringing typical crotchetiness to MacArthur, making him spew lines like “Let’s show ’em some good old-fashioned American swagger,” because that’s just how Jones is. Every role he has taken in the past few years gets an injection of that typical crankiness. But few other things in “Emperor” can be excused away—the film is caged in by its blandness.
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