The Sun (2005) NYT Critics' Pick

[lsanderson]

Issey Ogata as Emperor Hirohito and Georgi Pitskhelauri as a bowing American adjutant in "The Sun."
When Dusk Finally Settled on the Emperor
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: November 18, 2009

At one point in the Russian director Alexander Sokurov’s beautiful and eccentric movie “The Sun,” the emperor Hirohito begins enthusing about a preserved hermit crab, the sounds of war planes having subsided. “What a miracle!” Hirohito (Issey Ogata) marvels, staring at the pale, pickled, seemingly unremarkable crustacean as an assistant transcribes the emperor’s comments. “What heavenly beauty!” As Hirohito gazes at the crab, you sense that he is acknowledging a fellow specimen, a communion accentuated by the smudged visuals and murky palette that suggest that all this is taking place inside a dirty aquarium. More