Empire of the Sun
The film begins in December of 1941, in Shanghai. Jim, who has lived in the British confines of that city all his life, simultaneously alien to the rest of China and the England from which his parents came from, becomes separated from his mother and father while the three of them are fleeing Shanghai, following the Japanese invasion. Frightened and alone, he first tries to hole up in his family’s mansion, operating under the illusion that they’ll return for him. When that’s no longer an option, he wonders out into the city, on the point of starvation, looking for food, trying to surrender to occupying Japanese troops. He finally ends up with con men Frank and Basie, and when the three make an abortive attempt to loot the abandoned British mansions, they are shipped off to an internment camp for British and American civilians, next to a captured airfield. Jim spends the next four years in the camp, and while it’s not pleasant, he learns how to survive and I believe he grows as a human being from this experience. In this film there is some definite evidence of differences between East and West Cultures as well as an underlying theme poverty versus wealth. The main question though is what can we learn about intercultur
Considering the fact that this film is based on a true story, there is a considerable amount of verifiable information that proves this notion. First of all, when the family is fleeing Shanghai there are scenes of Japanese marching troops into town and of army planes flying overhead. Also, after Jim had been separated from his parents and returns to the house, there is a painted insignia on one of the pillars stating that the house was property of the Emperor of Japan. The fact that World War II actually occurred and the Japanese invaded China is enough information to prove the validity of the story. These instances show characteristics of the film that made this movie factual as well as believable. I don’t believe that there are many biases shown throughout the movie. The war and actions portrayed by Steven Spielberg are not lopsided towards one way or the other. All of the information used in this film compares accurately to what we are learning in Intercultural Communication. I know there were signs that Jim’s father was ethnocentric as well as the differing world view and values evidenced in the film by the Japanese, Americans, Chinese and British. All four of these groups had different worldviews and values as to what was going on with the war and what was the right way to accomplish peace. This shows the correlation between what we are learning and what information was used in the film. In talking about taxonomies, I believe the British civilians exhibited more of a high context culture where as the Japanese soldiers showed more of a low context culture. There were a couple of scenes that showed the family that Jim was living with in the dorms. It was always very quiet and the mother, Mrs. Victor, could communicate just by looking the family knew wha
Some topics in this essay:
War II,
Chinese British,
Especially Jim’s,
West Cultures,
Basie Basie,
Particularly Japanese,
Shanghai Japanese,
British American,
Intercultural Communication,
Frank Basie,
intercultural communication,
learn intercultural,
learn intercultural communication,
japanese soldiers,
prison camp,
soldiers low context,
information film,
soldiers low,
british civilians,
poverty versus wealth,
culture japanese,
perfect representation culture,
considerable amount,
intercultural communication movie,
believe learn,
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Approximate Word count = 1207
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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