Steven Spielberg (“Minority Report”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) directs the simply incredible “Empire of the Sun”. This is an unforgettable film yet hardly ever gets mentioned when discussing Spielberg’s filmography and that’s a genuine shame.

In “Empire of the Sun”, a young British boy by the name of Jim (Christian Bale “Batman Begins”, “The Machinist”) is living in China during the Japanese invasion in World War II. Jim finds himself separated from his family and ends up in a POW camp where he makes some unlikely friends as he tries to endure the occupation. This is a great tale set during World War II.

Jim is a great character with a real obsession with flying as he loves to see the fighter jets whether they’re friendly or not. Christian Bale does an astounding job as Jim; it’s amazing at such a young age, what a terrific performance he is able to give. I absolutely adore the scene in which Jim bossing around a Japanese soldier that can’t read a map properly. John Malkovich (“Burn After Reading”) is great too. The interaction between the two is fantastic. Nigel Havers (“Chariots of Fire”) is good. The other characters are entertaining and the performances are good. I don’t really think there were any characters that I disliked.

“Empire of the Sun” is a wonderfully touching film. It isn’t as intense as some other war movies because it doesn’t really focus on the war side, it focusses on innocent civilians caught up in it all. The scene where Jim loses his parents is incredibly well done. I think it’s a real pity that this film doesn’t get talked about more, it is magnificent, it is by a truly masterful director, it stars big names and it has everything you could want. “Empire of the Sun” is one of Spielberg’s best pictures and one of the best World War II films.