I mentioned this movie earlier in the Christmas/Holiday viewing topic and here is the anecdote as requested. It spans time frames that exceeds the age of any LHKF readers and the story comes to you via Shanghai to London and then San Francisco from the 1940's to the present day. There is certain mood to it that seems appropriate for the winter season as our thoughts sometimes wander into the past.
Empire of the Sun didn't do too well upon it's original release in 1987 except for the fact that it is among the first Western movies made on location in the modernizing Mainland China of the mid-80's. At the time, it was released in Decenber of 1987 just one week before The Last Emperor (another film that I have mixed feelings about but that's another story) and was completely overshadowed by that multiple Oscar-winning film. I'm relating this tale in some detail here -- I posted it on IMDB several years ago upon the death of the person who told it to me but it's now buried in some topic thread under a title I no longer recall.
A Story About J.G. Ballard
The Wongsaurus once served as program director to a now defunct current affairs/business/social organization -- an old time China-hands association . I had the opportunity to become acquainted with one of its board of governors who was a China-born Scot from a missionary family named Hudson. Hudson related the following tale to me.
In the 1930's and up to the outbreak of the Pacific war between Japan and the Allies, Hudson's father was a member of some years with the Shanghai Municipal Council; a prestigious position on the British appointed governing body of that port city which was opened to the West in the mid-19th century as a result of the Opium War.
Hudson was then an eleven year old lad when he attended Cathedral Hill School in 1941. He was a few years younger than the author J.G.
Ballard who was a schoolmate and they were acquainted as most everyone in the British community knew each other. They were both to be imprisoned after the
conquest of Shanghai's International Settlement . They enjoyed the status of guests of the Emperor of Japan for almost three and a half years . It was a
harsh and bitter experience for Hudson. Many decades passed after the war and by then J.G. was a successful author. His semi-autobiographical novel Empire
of the Sun had also just been made into a movie by Stephen Spielberg. Hudson had read the book and seen the movie and he was rather annoyed by the
romanticized depiction of the prisoner of war experience. Hudson felt that the POW years were not a boy's grand adventure but a difficult and cruel
experience. He went to seek out and meet Ballard again in London. In a good-natured way he confronted Ballard and asked him what kind of storytelling was that
and where did he come up with some of his prison camp experiences including Jamie's apparent emotional trauma as a result of separation from his parents?
After all, in reality Ballard was never separated from his parents for the duration of the war and spent his entire POW experience with them. Ballard's
sheepish response was that his re-imagining of his teenaged years in wartime China is just good storytelling as it appeals to readers and helps sell books. He
exercised artistic license in the telling of his youthful coming of age and with Spieldberg had further embellished it during the screen adaptation.
An interesting aspect to all of this was that Hudson by then was a retired USAF lieutenant colonel and former jet fighter pilot. After the war his family had
emigrated to the States and that was where he eventually joined the air force and received his flight training and commission. He told me that almost every
English schoolboy of his generation were awed by aviation (particularly after the Battle of Britain in 1940) and he was fortunate to realize his
dreams.
I have never read the novel Empire of the Sun and so am only familiar with it from the film version. The Spielberg touch is very evident.
Before Hudson's death some five years ago, I had suggested to him to be sure to preserve this tidbit of literary and cinematic history
with his family, especially his daughter who worked in theater arts and the film industry. Whether he left any notes in his papers and effects or if his adult
children had any appreciation for the story is unknown to me so I am left to tell it to anyone who is interested enough to listen.
Someday in the future when you are sitting in some pub with your pint and your friends; the subject of movies and film adaptations of literary works may
arise and there may be mention of J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun. And just like when Hudson related this story to me, it will
then be one of you readers who will be telling it to yet another listener.
Continued discussion of the movie is welcomed in this thread.
