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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Liminal Syzygy" data-source="post: 1293192" data-attributes="member: 1373">I just saw this movie day before yesterday with a Japanese audience in Roppongi.I thought the Emperor's decision at the end was drawing a parallel to MODERN Japan... That she should go her own way and stop being a lackey of the US. But maybe I read too much into it. (Disclaimer: Not supporting this view in any way just saying I felt this was there as a message.)I agree that it would have been a better movie if at least some small attempt was made to present a more balanced viewpoint and to show the true complexities of the situation.My (Japanese) wife was a bit taken in by it and as we were discussing it afterwards intimated that Japan would have been better off without the Meiji Restoration. But I said that without the Meiji Restoration Japan would surely have been used and abused by a Western or another Asian power as Japan abused China and Korea. It's not a simple issue.But from the viewpoint of a fun movie, it was good. Also from the viewpoint of a Japanese speaker there wasn't anything EXTREMELY painful in the movie. Holywood uses random Asians in Japanese roles at times and this was avoided. The English guy's Japanese was pretty bad, but besides a few times in which it sunk into incomprehensibility, it was believable as a scholar-type who could read and translate but just had a bad ear for the spoken word (I've run into a few of those people).</blockquote>