{ "id": "epjgd4tapz", "slug": "emperor-2012-film", "title": "Emperor (2012 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Emperor (終戦のエンペラー) is a 2012 Peter Webber historical drama starring Matthew Fox as General Bonner Fellers and Tommy Lee Jones as MacArthur, deciding Hirohito's war-crimes fate; released March 2013, 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, $3.3M US gross.", "snippet": "Emperor (終戦のエンペラー) is a 2012 Peter Webber historical drama starring Matthew Fox as General Bonner Fellers and Tommy Lee Jones as MacArthur, deciding Hirohito's war-crimes fate; released March 2013, 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, $3.3M US gross.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-symbols-to-l.alpha-1-to-em", "markdown": "# Emperor (2012 film)\n\n**Emperor** (released in Japan as *終戦のエンペラー*) is a 2012 historical drama film directed by Peter Webber, in which General Bonner Fellers, an American military intelligence officer serving under General Douglas MacArthur, must decide in the days after Japan's 1945 surrender whether Emperor Hirohito should be tried and hanged as a war criminal.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) The film stars [Matthew Fox](https://www.edgepedia.org/matthew-fox) as Fellers and [Tommy Lee Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/tommy-lee-jones) as MacArthur, with Eriko Hatsune as Aya Shimada, a Japanese woman from Fellers's past.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writers | Peter Webber; screenplay by Vera Blasi and David Klass, based on the book *His Majesty's Salvation* by Shiro Okamoto[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103264/fullcredits/) |\n| Lead cast | Matthew Fox (Gen. Bonner Fellers), Tommy Lee Jones (Gen. Douglas MacArthur), Eriko Hatsune (Aya Shimada), Takatarô Kataoka (the Emperor)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012/cast-and-crew) |\n| US release | Limited theatrical release March 8, 2013; distributed by Lionsgate Films and Roadside Attractions; rated PG-13[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) |\n| Japanese release | About 300 theaters across Japan on July 27, 2013, as 終戦のエンペラー[4](https://www.asij.ac.jp/asij-stories/emperor) |\n| Production | Shot January to March 2012 in New Zealand and Japan; 40 days of shooting in New Zealand[4](https://www.asij.ac.jp/asij-stories/emperor) • [5](https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/emperor) |\n| Box office | $3.3 million gross in the United States; runtime 1 hour 46 minutes[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) |\n| Reception | 31% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (88 reviews) and 46% on the Popcornmeter; Metascore 48 on Metacritic from 33 critic reviews[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/emperor/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and plot\n\nThe story is set in the days immediately after the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, when General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the occupying forces, became the de facto ruler of Japan.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103264/plotsummary/) MacArthur orders General Bonner Fellers, whom promotional material calls an expert on Japanese culture and psychological warfare, to quietly look into the issue facing the nation: the Japanese Emperor, venerated by his citizens yet charged with war crimes, is he to be punished or spared?[8](https://watch.afi.com/movie/emperor)\n\nInterwoven with the investigation is a romance. Fellers searches postwar Japan for Aya, a Japanese exchange student he had met years earlier in the United States, and the film presents this quest as shaping his judgment about the Emperor's fate.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103264/plotsummary/) According to the producers' synopsis, the film tells a tale rooted in actual happenings, following the daring and covert actions that secured peace behind the scenes in Japan after the war.[9](https://www.filmconsortium.com/emperor)\n\n## Basis in fact\n\nThe screenplay draws on the real [Bonner Frank Fellers](https://www.edgepedia.org/bonner-fellers), a US Army brigadier general who served under MacArthur. According to the film's producers, the script was based on Fellers's personal diaries and on letters exchanged with a Japanese exchange student he had met while she studied in the United States; Fellers first came to Japan in 1911.[4](https://www.asij.ac.jp/asij-stories/emperor) A Screen Daily report on the project likewise described the screenplay as based on a true story, with Fellers tasked with investigating whether the Emperor should be tried and hanged as a war criminal while trying to relocate a young Japanese woman with whom he had fallen in love.[10](https://www.screendaily.com/production/matthew-fox-to-star-in-emperor-for-director-peter-webber/5036161.article)\n\nThe historical question at the film's center was real. In the decades after the war, the accepted account held that Hirohito had been essentially a pawn of the militarists, a version MacArthur himself helped establish because he believed he needed the Emperor to run a smooth occupation; later inquiry by historians has judged that version far from accurate, with the occupation official and historian Richard B. Finn concluding that the emperor was fully informed about the decisions leading to the 1941 war and knew in advance of the plan to attack Hawaii.[11](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/macarthur-emperor-hirohito-and-pm-yoshida/) In the end Hirohito was not prosecuted for war crimes; he was kept on the throne to facilitate the occupation's reforms, and the 1947 constitution downgraded the emperor's status to that of a figurehead without political control.[12](https://nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2000377/files/jare_039_181.pdf) • [13](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/japan-reconstruction)\n\n## Production\n\nPeter Webber, whose first feature had been *Girl with a Pearl Earring*, came to the project with a longstanding interest in Japan and in World War II.[5](https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/emperor) • [14](https://www.screendaily.com/peter-webber-emperor/5046459.article) The film was shot from January to March 2012, with a five-minute clip taken to the Cannes Film Festival; the producers estimated about five years from the original idea to theaters, including roughly two years writing the script.[4](https://www.asij.ac.jp/asij-stories/emperor) Shooting took place in New Zealand and Japan, with 40 days of filming in New Zealand, 45 cast members including 24 [New Zealanders](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-zealanders), and 287 total New Zealand cast and crew plus extras; Auckland was dressed to stand in for postwar Tokyo.[5](https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/emperor)\n\nThe film was produced by Yoko Narahashi (*The Last Samurai*), Gary Foster, Eugene Nomura, and Russ Krasnoff, as a co-production of Fellers Film and Krasnoff/Foster Entertainment.[5](https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/emperor) The crew included cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh, production designer Grant Major, costume designer Ngila Dickson, and composer Alex Heffes, who recorded his score with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre in [Wellington](https://www.edgepedia.org/wellington).[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012/cast-and-crew) • [5](https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/emperor) Webber noted that the film's cast of Japanese actors were very well known in Japan but not outside it.[14](https://www.screendaily.com/peter-webber-emperor/5046459.article)\n\n## Release\n\nThe film premiered at the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) in September 2012.[14](https://www.screendaily.com/peter-webber-emperor/5046459.article) It opened in limited US theaters on March 8, 2013, distributed by [Lionsgate Films](https://www.edgepedia.org/lionsgate-films) and Roadside Attractions, with a streaming release on May 15, 2014.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) In Japan it opened on July 27, 2013 in about 300 theaters under the title 終戦のエンペラー.[4](https://www.asij.ac.jp/asij-stories/emperor) Its US gross was $3.3 million.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) Runtime listings vary slightly by version: 106 minutes for the theatrical cut reviewed in the *Journal of American History*, 116 minutes for the modified Australian DVD, and 1 hour 46 minutes on Rotten Tomatoes.[15](https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/100/1/318/748093) • [16](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/emperor-0) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012)\n\n## Reception\n\nCritical response was mixed to negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 31% Tomatometer from 88 reviews and a 46% audience score, with the site's critics consensus reading: \"Despite a typically strong performance from Tommy Lee Jones, *Emperor* does little with its fascinating historical palate, and is instead bogged down in a cliched romantic subplot.\"[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 48, labeled mixed or average, based on 33 critic reviews, with 11 positive, 19 mixed, and 3 negative.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/emperor/)\n\nReviewers repeatedly singled out Jones's MacArthur as the film's strength while faulting the romance. Mick LaSalle of the [San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-chronicle) wrote that the best way to watch the film is to pretend the Supreme Command of Allied Forces was Tommy Lee Jones, in which case \"the movie works surprisingly well.\"[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/emperor/) [Mark Kermode](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-kermode) of the Observer gave it 2 out of 5, describing \"hokey monologues about the finger of historical blame\" interspersed with \"perfume-ad flashbacks to idyllic days of love.\"[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012) The Santa Barbara Independent called the film blandly journeyman but historically interesting, noting that it fills in a part of the World War II story mostly skipped over in history books and multiplexes.[17](https://www.independent.com/2013/03/05/emperor/) A review in the *Journal of American History* described the film as part war crimes procedural, part romantic melodrama, noting that Fellers is given ten days to determine whether the emperor should stand trial or be allowed to remain in place, albeit stripped of divinity.[15](https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/100/1/318/748093)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Emperor (2012), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012)\n2. [Emperor (2012) full cast and crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103264/fullcredits/)\n3. [Emperor: Full Cast & Crew, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/emperor_2012/cast-and-crew)\n4. [ASIJ Stories: Emperor, American School in Japan](https://www.asij.ac.jp/asij-stories/emperor)\n5. [Emperor, New Zealand Film Commission](https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/emperor)\n6. [Emperor Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/emperor/)\n7. [Emperor (2012) plot summary, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103264/plotsummary/)\n8. [Emperor, American Film Institute](https://watch.afi.com/movie/emperor)\n9. [Emperor, The Film Consortium](https://www.filmconsortium.com/emperor)\n10. [Matthew Fox to star in Emperor for director Peter Webber, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/production/matthew-fox-to-star-in-emperor-for-director-peter-webber/5036161.article)\n11. [Emperor Hirohito and PM Yoshida, PBS American Experience](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/macarthur-emperor-hirohito-and-pm-yoshida/)\n12. [Japan Review 39 (2024): 181–202, Nichibunken](https://nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2000377/files/jare_039_181.pdf)\n13. [Occupation and Reconstruction of Japan, 1945–52, US Office of the Historian](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/japan-reconstruction)\n14. [Peter Webber, Emperor, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/peter-webber-emperor/5046459.article)\n15. [Emperor, Journal of American History 100(1), June 2013](https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/100/1/318/748093)\n16. [EMPEROR, Australian Classification](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/emperor-0)\n17. [Emperor, The Santa Barbara Independent](https://www.independent.com/2013/03/05/emperor/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › Historical dramas and epics › Titles symbols to L › Titles 1 to Em*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-2012-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-2012-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Emperor (2012 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-2012-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Emperor (2012 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-2012-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-2012-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-2012-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Emperor (2012 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/emperor-2012-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Emperor is a 2012 Peter Webber historical drama starring Matthew Fox as General Bonner Fellers and Tommy Lee Jones as MacArthur, deciding Hirohito's war-crimes fate; released March 2013, 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, $3.3M US gross." }