| Alexander Sokurov finished filming the film “The Sun” In the new film by Alexander Sokurov about the Japanese Emperor Hirahito, based on the script by Yuri Arabov, exclusively Japanese and American actors are involved. Major international festivals have already become interested in the film; Sokurov is currently considering the possibility of participating in one of them. However, already in mid-February 2005, “The Sun” should be released in Russian theaters.
Hirahito, as you know, is not the first major historical figure of the last century to whom Sokurov turned. In the second half of the nineties, he, also based on the scripts of Yuri Arabov, filmed “Moloch” - about Hitler and “Taurus” - about Lenin. It would be logical to expect a continuation of the series about the great tyrants of the twentieth century - in other words, a film about Stalin. But Sokurov chose a personality of a completely different type, although from the same time. By the time World War II began, Emperor Hirahito had already ruled Japan for many years. It was he who signed the act of surrender on August 15, 1945, which saved the country from a long and painful continuation of the war. And it was he who supported in 1941 the admiral group in the ruling elite of Japan, which, unlike the general group, which demanded a declaration of war on the USSR, defended the idea of war with the United States. If Hirahito had acted on the side not of the admirals, but of the generals, the fate of Russia would probably have turned out differently: it is impossible to imagine that the country would have survived a war on two fronts - with Germany and Japan.
Sokurov's film is dedicated to those few days in the life of Hirahito, when he negotiated surrender with American General Douglas MacArthur in August 1945. By August 14, negotiations were completed. Hirahito agreed not only to the surrender of the country, but also to the renunciation of his divine origin: it is believed that he descends from Emperor Jimmu, who ascended the Japanese throne in 660 BC. e. (the Japanese ruling dynasty is the oldest in the world) and who is the son of the gods. When Hirahito spoke on the radio announcing surrender on August 15, 1945, the Japanese heard the voice of a living god for the first time.
In exchange for renouncing kinship with the gods, Hirahito was given the throne, life and imperial title. He died in 1989, having devoted the last years of his life to ichthyology. The current Emperor of Japan is his son.
The film crew of Alexander Sokurov is still hiding the name of the Japanese actor who played Hirahito, citing the fact that the attitude of his compatriots towards his hero is too ambiguous. We turned to Japanese scholar Grigory Chkhartishvili with a request to comment on the perception of the figure of Hirahito in modern Japan. “In Japanese society, like any other, there are different groups of people,” he explained. - The group that writes and speaks more than others, that is, the one that we would call the intelligentsia, does not accept either the figure of Hirahito or the very idea of monarchy. In other strata of society, the attitude towards the emperor is rather respectful. Hirahito was not a fanatic and saved Japan from continuing the war, for which the country should be grateful to him. Although the fact that Japan entered this war in the first place is, of course, his fault. But whether this could have been avoided is a difficult question.”
The producers of the film “The Sun” are Andrey Sigle (Proline-film) and Igor Kalenov (“Nikola-film”) with the participation of Marco Muller (who was for many years the director of the Locarno festival, and in 2004 headed the Venetian “Mostra”) and General Director of STS Alexander Rodnyansky. Thus, Sokurov’s film will become the first Russian arthouse production in which television will take an active part in its promotion. However, even without active distribution within the country, Sokurov’s films can be very successful in a commercial sense. “Russian Ark,” the rights to which were sold to several European countries and America, grossed more than $3 million in limited release in the United States alone. Larisa YUSIPOVA |
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