Blood on the Sun (1945)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

James Cagney goes to Japan in this dated slice of anti-Japanese propaganda which sees the gangster star tackling a government intent on world domination. With much of the supporting cast made up of American actors "yellowed up" for their roles and a decidedly anti-Japanese sentiment to the storyline and its resolution, it's hard for modern viewers to enjoy this one.Cagney is as good as ever as the crusading reporter aiming to bring to light secret plans by a sinister government, but his role is one of those which could have been played by anybody and he can do little with it. In a nutshell, he's not as fun as he was in his gangster movies. The supporting cast is also a disappointment, made of up caricatures and stereotypes for the most part. While BLOOD ON THE SUN does boast a handful of fun martial arts fight scenes and a couple of decent set-pieces - especially at the climax - as a whole it's a rather middling slice of screen entertainment.

. . . a brave American journalist got wind of Japanese Imperialism and nipped WWII's Pacific Theater in the bud, saving millions of lives. James Cagney portrays Nick Condon in this Biopic, since Nick was half Irish and half Norweigen, just like Cagney himself. Nick got wind of the Japanese militarists' secret plot to conquer first China, then Singapore, the Philippines, Alaska, Hawaii, etc. Being educated in American public schools, Nick easily out-smarted Yamamoto and Tojo, as shown here. So the Rape of Nanking, the Sneak Attack on Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, the BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, Midway, Attu, Guadacanal, Corregidor, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, the A-bombs and so forth became the bad dreams of an Alternate Reality. When you try to square today's American interstates being clogged with Japanese cars, today's American fingers being glued to Japanese devices 24\7, and today's American Major League Baseball teams crawling with Japanese players, whose version of U.S.-Japanese relations in the 1900s seems more plausible--Wikipedia's or Nick's? I, for one, say Nick's does.

Set in 1920s Japan James Cagney plays newspaperman Nick Condon. He has offended the Japanese authorities by publishing an article suggesting that Japan has plans to attack China and ultimately the United States and when he is given a document, which implicates Premier Tanaka and his underling Colonel Tojo, that seems to prove this his life is in danger; two people have already died while trying to get it out of the country. They send Iris Hilliard, a half Chinese woman to try to trick him into handing over the document… but he no longer has it and has no idea who does have it!Made in 1945 it isn't surprising that the Japanese are depicted in a negative way but they could have been a lot worse; not all of them are portrayed as being bent on world domination. James Cagney does a solid enough job as Condon and Sylvia Sidney was okay as Iris… although she didn't look half Chinese and romance between her and Cagney isn't the most believable on screen. There isn't much action but there fight scene at the end is pretty good; its scrappiness making it more believable than an obviously choreographed fight would be. As the finale approaches the tension rises as at times it looks as if our hero could die for his course. Overall this isn't a classic Cagney film but it is enjoyable enough.

After James Cagney won his Academy Award for Best Actor, he broke free of Warner Bros. and began focusing on what he considered to be art. Cagney's own production company made this wartime thriller, and it is one of his better efforts among his 1940's independent works. Cagney plays an American newspaper reporter living in Japan who crosses wires with the expansionist Japanese government. Cagney's character is fluent in both Japanese and Chinese, and even knows judo. It's refreshing to see a film from the immediate post-war era that doesn't try to simplify the problem of what happened in Japan and Germany with something like - If only these people would start playing baseball, learn to love hot dogs, and be more like Americans, this sort of thing would never have happened.Cagney's character, Nick Condun, has to hide some expansionist Japanese plans from the Japanese government until he can safely get the data to the American embassy. Along the way he finds an ally in half-Chinese Sylvia Sydney's character Iris Hilliard, who becomes Nick's love interest. One thing about the production code you have to understand - interracial love is strictly taboo, so Nick and Iris' love scenes are less than satisfying. At the end of the film they share just the tiniest bit of a kiss.Cagney is always fun to watch whether he's on an unrighteous or righteous tear, so I'd recommend it even if the script could have perhaps been a little more lively to match the energy of the lead actor.