I will confess that I went in to Alexander Sokurov's The Sun completely dry, having seen none of the director's previous work, not even the acclaimed single take opus Russian Ark. The experience was a conflicting one as the film moves as a very deliberate pace. Well, deliberate is one word for it, others would simply prefer slow. It's as though Sokurov sat down to watch some Tarkovsky and responded with a hearty "Whoa there, big fella ... you're going too fast.&"
Sokurov's third film focusing on a supreme military leader - early films have covered Hitler and Lenin - The Sun tells the story of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, starting shortly after the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima and finishing with Hirohito's renunciation of his divine status. He approaches Hirohito entirely sympathetically, as a man concerned with the well being of his people who accepts personal mistreatment for their benefit.
The film gives ou snapshots of Hirohito's life behind the scenes. We take an early breakfast with him, sit in on a military meeting just after the Americans have occupied the country, experience his troubling dream of bizarre winged monsters and fish raining fire upon his homeland, and follow him through a series of personally humiliating meetings with General MacArthur where he is forced to capitulate and treat the invading general as an equal.
While many sequences were fascinating - the dream sequence and MacArthur sequences in particular - there were others, primarily in the early going, where the primary concern was simply retaining consciousness or, failing that, not snoring. The extremely slow pace makes the film difficult going at times, a problem not at all helped by the fact that the film is extremely dimly lit which often makes it difficult to make out facial expressions and other details. Many slower film makers compensate for the pace by filling the screen with beautiful images and strong cinematography but Sokurov is strictly pedestrian on that front. And, although it seems a hugely shallow complaint, I was rather disturbed by the fact that Hirohito was played as a major mouth-breather. His lips constantly trembling as they stretched forward to suck in air Hirohito resembled nothing so much as a fish sucking water into its gills and I couldn't help but wonder when the hook was going to come down for him.
My hunch is that The Sun will play purely as a niche picture, best received by history buffs and fans of serious art house fare. It offers little in the way of drama and virtually nothing in the way of plot. It is simply a two hour snapshot of a hugely important historical figure.