First Lines: J.G. Ballard - Cocaine Nights

Crossing frontiers is my profession.

New Stuff: J.G. Ballard

First Lines: J.G. Ballard - Running Wild

August 25, 1988. Where to start?

First Lines: J.G. Ballard - High-Rise

Later, as he sat on his balcony eating his dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.

First Lines: J.G. Ballard - Crash

Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash.

First Lines: J.G. Ballard - The Crystal World

Above all, the darkness of the river was what impressed Dr. Sanders as he looked out for the first time across the open mouth of the Matarre estuary.

New Stuff: J.G. Ballard

Empire of the Sun (1987)

A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation during World War II.

Grandiose epic of a child's coming-of-age amidst the horrors as war, both adventure and affecting drama, full of detail and made with cinematic expertise; and Christian Bale's performance is sensational.

Halliwell***: "Intelligent and thought-provoking movie about the loss of childhood innocence through the horrors of war. Bale, as the boy, gives an extraordinarily believable performance."

Maltin**: "Strawling, ambitious, but emotionally distant and loaded with cinematic crescendos (replete with crane camera shots and overbearing music by John Williams) that simply don't have the emotional content  to warrant all that fuss."