The Emperor in August

Though more recent than many of the titles released on hi-def Blu-ray editions by Twilight Time, Masato Harada's 2015 "The Emperor in August" fits right in thanks to both Harada's fluency and the movie's you-are-there historical sensibilities. With spare, decisive scenes, Harada delves into the events in the week and a half that led up to Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, as the Emperor of Japan (Masahiro Motoki) presses for an end to the war while the most aggressive among his generals -- including Tojo and, at first, General Anami (Koji Yakusho) -- take a hard line stance, envisioning a glorious victory in the form of millions of ordinary citizens sacrificing their lives in one final, cataclysmic battle on home soil.

The hard-liners include a handful of young officers who become more and more anxious to stage a forceful intervention -- even a coup if that's what it takes -- to prevent the emperor from ending the war on terms that threaten the "national polity" of Japan. Dancing his way through mounting chaos and political strife -- sometimes literally, as Harada's camera tracks his gracefully stepping feet -- is the elderly, and extremely wily, Suzuki (Tsutomo Yamazaki), to whom Emperor Hirohito has turned to act as prime minister and help guide the country through the war's final paroxysms and into the future. It's not an easy task, especially when American forces annihilate Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb and destroy much of Tokyo with a firestorm generated through the use of conventional weaponry. Such overwhelming catastrophes convince many level-headed leaders of the need to make peace, but the issue is deeply and dramatically polarizing; the hardliners are willing to invest everything in a belief of "life in death" and are willing to forge suicidally forward in what they see as service to their nation. This edition offers an isolated score track, original theatrical trailer, and a booklet essay by erudite film scholar Julie Kirgo, who readily proves herself as adept and insightful here as with any of the American films from the 1950s and 1960s that you might think of when you contemplate the Twilight Time catalog.

Richly observant and sometimes darkly comical, this film -- though historical -- has the virtues of a novel, and indeed has been adapted from a novel by Kazutoshi Hand�. Gripping, compelling, and -- in more ways than are entirely comfortable -- relevant to the here and now, "The Emperor in August" can rightly be compared to the work of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory in terms of production quality and compelling, dramatic narrative.

"The Emperor in August"
Blu-ray
$29.95
https://www.twilighttimemovies.com/emperor-in-august-the-blu-ray