102 EMPIRE OF THE SUN
exterior shots were filmed at a house in Knutsford, a town near Manchester,
England. After a year of negotiations with Shanghai Film Studios and China Film
Co- Production Corporation in 1985, the filmmakers were granted permission for
a three- week shoot in Shanghai in March 1987. Signs were altered to traditional
Chinese characters, entire city blocks near the Huangpu River waterfront were
closed off for filming, and over 5,000 local extras were used for the chaotic mob
scene where Jamie is separated from his mother. Members of the People’s Libera-
tion Army were enlisted to play Japa nese soldiers. The Lunghua detention center
set was built inside the abandoned Beckton Gas Works in East London (where
Stanley Kubrick filmed the Vietnam scenes for Full Metal Jacket in 1986). The
Suzhou Creek prison camp set was built near Jerez, 80 miles northwest of Seville,
in southwest Spain. Four Harvard SNJ (aka North American T-6 Texan) trainer
aircraft were modified in France to resemble Mitsubishi A6M Zeros. Three
restored North American P-51D Mustang fighter planes— two from Stephen
Grey’s The Fighter Collection and one from Ray Hanna’s Old Flying Machine
Com pany (both based at Duxford Airfield, Cambridgeshire, England)— were
flown in the film. Hanna and his son, Mark, and Michael “Hoof” Proudfoot of
The Fighter Collection flew the P-51s for a complex and spectacular air- raid scene
on the Japa nese base adjacent to the Suzhou Creek Internment Camp that took
over 10 days to film ( later reshot at considerable expense in Trebujena, Spain
because Spielberg felt the original lacked authenticity). Large- scale remote con-
trol flying models were also used, including an 18- foot wingspan B-29 used for
the supply drop scene. Industrial Light & Magic designed the visual effects
sequences with some computer- generated imagery (CGI) also used for the Naga-
saki atomic bomb flash. J. G. Ballard makes a cameo appearance at the costume
party scene.Plot Summary
During Japan’s invasion of China, young Jamie Graham (Christian Bale) is enjoy-
ing the privileged life of an upper- class British expatriate in the Shanghai Interna-
tional Settlement. After they attack Pearl Harbor, the Japa nese occupy Shanghai’s
foreign settlements. In the chaos that ensues, Jamie is separated from his parents.
He returns to their deserted home but is forced to venture into the city after the
food runs out. Jamie attempts to turn himself in to a group of Japa nese militia-
men, but he is turned away. He is then taken in by Basie ( John Malkovich)—
a stranded American ship’s steward and a hustler— and his partner- in- crime, Frank
Demarest ( Joe Pantoliano), who nicknames him “Jim.” To mollify Basie and Frank,
Jamie leads them back to his neighborhood where they can loot valuables. At Jamie’s
old house, the trio is arrested by Japa nese soldiers and taken to Lunghua Civilian
Assembly Center outside Shanghai for pro cessing. Soon thereafter a truck arrives
to take some internees to the Suzhou Creek Internment Camp. Basie is among those
selected to go. Jamie is not, but he convinces the soldiers to take him along. When
he reaches the camp, Jim walks to the airfield and watches workers fixing up a
squadron of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters and trades salutes with fighter pi lots.
Later, resourceful Jim survives in the camp by running a lucrative trading network,