Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American epic coming-of-age war film based on J. G. Ballard‘s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, and Christian Bale. The film tells the story of Jamie “Jim” Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai, to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp, during World War II.