Emperor," a rare Japan-U.S. joint production, aims squarely for that old-school "Casablanca" vibe, a tragic romance set against a backdrop of wartime intrigue, with mixed results. Based on the book "His Majesty's Salvation" by Shiro Okamoto, the topic is one guaranteed to raise eyebrows: Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) arrives in Tokyo in August 1945 following Japan's surrender and he instructs his subordinate, intelligence officer Gen. Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox), to immediately begin an investigation into Emperor Hirohito's role in the war, and whether or not he should be put on trial for war crimes. If guilty, the Emperor would hang.
Fellers is an old Japan hand and MacArthur judges him as the best man to make the call, though rival officers see him as in bed with the Japanese, rather literally, since Fellers is also trying to track down the whereabouts of his prewar lover, Aya (Eriko Hatsune), who may well have been killed in the Allied firebombing air raids.
The movie follows their relationship in flashback, from when they met at college in America — where she was a rare Japanese exchange student in those days — and in Japan, where Fellers pens his thesis on "The Psychology of the Japanese Soldier" with advice from Aya's uncle, Gen. Kajima (Toshiyuki Nishida). In the face of impending war and rabid antiforeigner sentiment in Japan, Fellers and Aya are tragically separated. Now back with the occupation, Fellers discreetly has his driver Takahashi (Masayoshi Haneda) try to find her, as he wanders the bombed-out, rain-swept streets of Tokyo getting morosely drunk on sake like any classic film-noir hero.