Film Forum

U.S., 1987
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Based on the novel by J.G.Ballard
With Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson
Music by John Williams
Approx. 153 mins. 4K DCP Restoration.

“Day and night, the boy dreams of flying. He knows the names of all the airplanes and can spot them by their silhouettes. When they fly overhead in Shanghai in the last days before World War II breaks out, they may be an ominous omen for his parents, but for him they are wondrous machines, free of gravity, free to soar. The boy's parents are wealthy British citizens who enjoy a life of great luxury in Shanghai, a life in which limousines hurry them through the crowded streets to business meetings and masquerade balls and they hardly need notice the ordinary people in those streets. Sometimes the Chinese press too close to the car, sometimes they hold up traffic, but mostly they are simply invisible — until war breaks out, and the boy's whole world is shattered.” – Roger Ebert