Blood on the Sun

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ed m Great movie. Over looked gem. Cagney is the best. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Despite the wrong depictions of unintelligence and stupidity aimed at the Japanese, this is still a great action/mystery movie with James Cagney perfectly cast as the hot-headed newspaper man. Other than the typical racism towards the Japanese, this movie does not have many similarities among most wartime propaganda films. Therefore, I would consider this movie to be unique and well-worth watching. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member The film just about works well enough in its historical context of pre-warmongering Japan, without this reference there's not really much impact value to the storyline, although James Cagney does well enough with his character who fends off the unwanted attention his newspaper article has brought him. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Blood on the Sun (1945) What can I say, but this is an American war movie and propaganda piece to get you in the mood for enlisting or at least buying war bonds. It's quite weird to see all of the asian characters as white people in "Yellow Face" make-up, but the characters (even the bad guys) are pretty well fleshed out. The movie is more anti-fascist than anti-Japanese. Nick Condon (James Cagney) is a newspaper correspondent in Tokyo before the Pearl Harbor attack. He did a stint in China a little before the Japanese occupation, so nobody is fooling him. He's seeing the right-wing militaristic take-over of the Japanese government. His news stories are having problems with the censors, especially the recent news about Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka's (John Emery) plan for world domination to where he's trying to sneak information out of Japan, despite the efforts of Hideki Tojo (Robert Armstrong). There's also a cute female spy. There was a Tanaka Plan that the Chinese Communists printed that implicated Emperer Hirohito. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member An American newspaper editor working in Japan between the two world wars must stay alive in order to warn the world of Japanese plans for global domination after he lands on a document unveiling such plans. This Cagney vehicle is hardly a stand out, with its patriotic undertones and superficial characters, but there is still some appeal in the lighting and the fast paced editing. As well as that, Blood on the Sun is arguably the first American produced martial arts film. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member A slight change of pace for Jimmy Cagney, instead of a two-fisted gangster or G-man, he plays a two-fisted American newspaperman working in a Tokyo news bureau on the eve of World War II, involved in mystery and intrigue leading to the discovery of the (fictitious?) Tanaka Plan, a semi-legendary 'smoking gun' that supposedly outlined Japan's plans for world dominance. Interesting and fantastic attempt at wars end to imply the possibility that America may have been able to foresee the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. Cagney is as snappy and pugnacious as ever after a brief hiatus from playing in films, and young Sylvia Sidney, who is perhaps familiar to younger audiences for her roles in several Tim Burton films, is lovely and enchanting as his half-Chinese love interest (and perhaps double-agent?) Colorized version looks terrible, stick to black and white. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Blood on the Sun

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