A further entry in Spielberg's ever-burgeoning Second World War
canon, JG Ballard's autobiographical story of his youth in Shanghai
and a Japanese concentration camp is fuelled by his uniquely
off-centre perspective on the world around him. But Spielberg doesn't
share this perspective and the film is a more orthodox affair, offering
up an admittedly moving rites of passage tale with young Christian Bale
acting his little socks off, supported ably by a host of respected faces
including Malkovich and Richardson. The epic set pieces are delivered
with aplomb, but the film carries the weight of a wunderkind director
struggling to find his adult feet.
