Jim Graham is living in Shanghai when Japan invades in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun.
The film opens in Shanghai in 1941, where Jim is a British boy living with his parents in the International Settlement. The Japanese occupation separates him from his family and begins his struggle for survival during the Second World War.
Jim is eventually taken to the Lunghua internment camp, where he encounters other civilians and adapts to harsh wartime conditions. The story is based on J. G. Ballard’s semi-autobiographical 1984 novel, which draws on the author’s childhood experiences in wartime Shanghai.
The city is sometimes confused with Hong Kong because both were major British-linked locations in East Asia during the period. Empire of the Sun specifically begins in Shanghai and focuses on the Japanese occupation there. Christian Bale played Jim in his breakthrough film role.