Mongol was the last war film we watched that was directed by a Russian, but with an Asian cast speaking an Asian language.

Curiously, it is not the only example of that kind of film. Take today's as another

example.

Alexander Sucarov is a Russian director with a particular interest in powerful men and today's film is about two such men.

Our protagonist, such as he is, is the Emperor, now known as Hirohido, a man who renounced

his godhood at the end of World War II as Japan surrendered to the United States.

Sugarov is explicitly disinterested with the specificity of historical fact and much more focused on presenting a real man in whom we can imagine

the actual internal struggle of having lived through a World War II as the infallible deity

emperor of a now defeated empire.

Herahido is small and lives a life that is stunningly quotidian.

We open on him receiving his breakfast from his major domo, and you almost don't realize that he's supposed to be the emperor.

He meets with his military brass who promised to continue the fight,

but the atom bombs have already fallen on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The war is coming to an end, and everybody knows it.

This is a film that spends almost all of its time in the ivory tower so when

hereahido is picked up by American gIs to go to meet with

Douglas MacArthur it's at first shocking to see them walking casually

through the extreme formality of the palace grounds and further shocking to see the burning

wasteland of Tokyo that they drive through to attend the meeting. Downfall is Hitler's bunker movie and the sun is Hirohinos.

Japan's participation in World War II led to massive amounts of suffering all over

East Asia and the Pacific Islands, not to mention within Japan.

But this head of state is not a raving madman.

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