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The Sun
Metascore
85 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 12
  3. Negative: 1 out of 12
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    100
    The Sun sheds only so much literal light on its chosen subject; it's a film of shadows and silence, the calm before and after the storm. But everything you see and hear carries weight and an eerie poetic undercurrent.
  2. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    100
    Sokurov, who also acted as director of photography, films the character and his surroundings with the eye of a newly arrived visitor to another world.
  3. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Fred Camper
    100
    This 2005 masterpiece by Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov transforms the story of Emperor Hirohito at the close of World War II into a melancholy meditation on power and its loss.
  4. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Sam Adams
    100
    The result is not to make the emperor sympathetic so much as it is to tug at the mask of despotic glory. In the end, he is only a man.
  5. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    90
    Though he successfully humanizes Hirohito, who is shown happily shedding his divinity, Sokurov doesn't entirely exonerate him. He contrives a shock ending that, as measured as everything else in this engrossing, supremely assured movie, acknowledges one last blood sacrifice on the emperor's altar.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    90
    The movie is best understood not in banal docudrama terms but as an impressionistic portrait of a man who, stripped of power, is revealed as grotesquely human.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    88
    This emperor verges on dementia, having no apparent clue how to function.
  8. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Richard James Havis
    80
    This precision-controlled film once again highlights Alexander Sokurov's mastery of the medium. The third entry in his Men in Power series employs refined performances, a controlled script, excellent sound and fluid camerawork.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Fives us behind-the-scene looks at Hirohito, the man and the ruler. The diminutive leader comes off sympathetically, as a man concerned with the welfare of his people.
  10. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Gary Goldstein
    70
    The setting, largely confined to the laboratory building and underground bunker of the otherwise bombed-out Imperial Palace, makes for somewhat claustrophobic viewing but effectively enhances the hermetically sealed feeling of Hirohito's royal life.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Leslie Felperin
    70
    As usual, Sokurov's unhurried pacing will test the patience of more fidgety viewers, although the script is more accessible than some of his recent efforts.
  12. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Michael Ferraro
    30
    Reflecting on Sokurov's other recent work – like "Russian Arc" for example – The Sun is a giant step down. It's an outrageously long-winded drama that's awfully directed with the skill of a high school play.
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