China Synopsis
“To survive in a world at war, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.”
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
Audience Engagement
1,740 audience reviews — more than 95% of China films in our index.
Review volume (95th percentile) outruns trending popularity (79th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Empire of the Sun. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Amblin Entertainment
Drama + History in China
53 China titles in our catalog blend the Drama and History genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Empire of the Sun itself).
The 1986–1988 China Window
Empire of the Sun holds position #6 of 11 China films in the 1986–1988 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1980s China Landscape
1987 was the decade’s peak output year for China — 6 titles released, including Empire of the Sun. Bars below show how the 1980s stacked up year by year (23 total).
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 33m runtime, production spent $229K per minute on screen and earned $436K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 5 other China films in 1987.
The 30th China title from China we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1935).
Our China catalog contains 946 titles in total (747 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Empire of the Sun, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- children in wartime · 5
- stadium · 4
- bravery · 4
- japanese surrender · 4
- japanese soldier · 3
- salt mine · 1
- internment camp · 1
- suzhou · 1
- shanghai · 26
- chinese · 17
- pacific war · 15
- japanese occupation of china · 14
- japanese army · 12
- peasant · 7
- child protagonist · 7
- prisoner of war · 6
- based on novel or book · 288
- china · 127
- china · 127
- coming of age · 78
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #175 of 946 China films indexed here (82nd percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.8 points above the China average of 6.7/10.
Among China Drama productions specifically: #109 of 547 (top 20%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | China |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | China, Spain, United Kingdom, United States of America |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | English, Japanese, Mandarin |
| Production Companies | Amblin Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Runtime | 2h 33m |
| Release Date | December 9, 1987 |
| IMDb | tt0092965 |