Solntse (The Sun) (2005)
87%RT Audience Score: 79%
Awards & Nominations: 6 wins & 9 nominations
Alexander Sokurov’s The Sun is a cinematic masterpiece that demands and rewards patience. With his signature oblique style, Sokurov takes us on a journey through the inner life of Emperor Hirohito, a man considered a god by his people. The film’s use of scale and visual leitmotifs, such as images of fish, mark its most emotionally and politically significant moments. While the slow pace and odd stilted performances may not be for everyone, in its very perverseness, The Sun is a unique, mesmerizing, and brilliantly intuitive study that should not be missed.
The Sun is a film that demands patience, but it’s worth it for the unique and mesmerizing experience. Sokurov’s experimentation and use of scale make for a visually stunning film, and the thematic leitmotif of marine biology adds an emotional and political depth. Plus, who doesn’t love a good stilted performance and weird stabs at slapstick? It’s a brilliant and mad study of a man who was considered a god by his people, and it’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re up for it, it’s an astounding work of intimate detail that shouldn’t be missed.
Production Company(ies)
Little Monster Films, Itinerant Films, Parkes MacDonald Image Nation
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
2005
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:NA
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):Japanese, English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): May 22, 2017
Genre(s)
History/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Issei Ogata, Robert Dawson, Kaori Mamoi, Shiro Sano, directed by Aleksandr Sokurov, written by Yuriy Arabov, History, Drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Keith Uhlich, Ben Kenigsberg, Wesley Morris, Walter V Addiego, Nick Schager, Sam Adams, Richard Propes, David Harris, Paul Dale, Kaleem Aftab, Daniel Mendelsohn, produced by Marco Muller, Igor Kalyonov, Andrey Sigle, MPAA rating, Emperor Hirohito, Gen Douglas MacArthur, World War II, enlightening, admirable, restraint, original language, English, streaming, May 22, 2017, 1h 55m
Worldwide gross: $218,325
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $332,724
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,827
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 36,284
US/Canada gross: $77,303
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $117,808
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,644
US/Canada opening weekend: $11,588
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $17,660
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,555
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Robert Dawson – Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Kaori Mamoi – Empress Kojun
Shiro Sano – Prince Higashikuni
Aleksandr Sokurov – Director
Yuriy Arabov – Screenwriter
Marco Muller – Producer
Igor Kalyonov – Producer
Andrey Sigle – Producer
Director(s)
Aleksandr Sokurov
Writer(s)
Yuriy Arabov
Producer(s)
Marco Muller, Igor Kalyonov, Andrey Sigle
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
6 wins & 9 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (3)
Sokurov, who also acted as director of photography, films the character and his surroundings with the eye of a newly arrived visitor to another world.
November 18, 2011 | Rating: 5/5
Keith Uhlich
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
November 17, 2011 | Rating: 4/5
Ben Kenigsberg
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
Working from Yuri Arabov and Jeremy Noble’s script, Sokurov has a wonderful time not simply with Hirohito and history, but with his filmmaking, which can be oblique to the point of being stultifying. Here he plays with scale.
April 1, 2010 | Rating: 3.5/4
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
TOP CRITIC
Alexander Sokurov’s The Sun demands and rewards patience.
March 25, 2010 | Rating: 4/4
Walter V. Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
Finds beauty, madness and outright bizarreness in the sight of a lost, slightly freakish man attempting to understand his altering reality.
December 7, 2009 | Rating: B+
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness
TOP CRITIC
The Sun took four years to reach American theaters, but the long delay hasn’t diminished the force of Sokurov’s experimentation.
November 19, 2009 | Rating: A
Sam Adams
AV Club
TOP CRITIC
A brilliant film.
September 24, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4.0
Richard Propes
TheIndependentCritic.com
An astounding work of intimate detail that should not be missed.
October 16, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
David Harris
Spectrum Culture
With its slow pace, weird stabs at slapstick, and odd stilted performances, The Sun may not be for everyone — but in its very perverseness, it has to to be noted that this is a unique, mesmerizing, mad and brilliantly intuitive study.
April 27, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Paul Dale
The List
Lauding the work of Russia’s finest living director is getting repetitive, but Sokurov goes from strength to strength.
April 26, 2019 | Rating: 5/5
Kaleem Aftab
The List
Hirohito’s interest in marine biology provides Sokurov with a fruitful thematic and visual leitmotif: images of fish glide through the film, marking its most emotionally and politically significant moments.
August 29, 2018
Daniel Mendelsohn
The New York Review of Books
… not a conventional biographical portrait by any definition, but rather a reflection in the inner life of the Emperor, a man who was considered a god by his people and treated as such.
June 10, 2010
Sean Axmaker
Seanax.com…
Plot
In the waning days of World War II, Emperor Hirohito of Japan meets with General Douglas MacArthur in Aleksandr Sokurov’s deliberately paced historical drama, The Sun.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Issei Ogata delivers a captivating performance as Emperor Hirohito.
Aleksandr-Sokurov.jpg
