Empire of the Sun (1987)

John Malkovich: Basie

Photos 

Quotes 

• Basie : Jim, didn't I teach you anything?

  Jim : Yes! You taught me that people will do anything... for a potato.

• [after Basie's friend killed Jim's Japanese friend] 

  Jim : Bastard! He gave me a mango!

  Basie : I'll give you a whole goddamn fruit salad. There are Frigidaires falling from the sky. It's kingdom come!

  Jim : He was my friend!

  Basie : He was a Jap!

  Jim : The war's over!

• Basie : Don't let me down kid you're an American now.

  Jim : [in a Brooklyn accent]  Hey how'ya doin' Frank?

• [Frank and Basie are about to leave Jim in the street] 

  Jim : [desperately]  Basie, first I could show you some rich pickings. Hundreds of houses left empty. I could show you some of the houses I lived in before Frank found me. They were luxuriant!

  Basie : Luxuriant? You had good sense being born there, Jim. I'm sure there was good living.

  Jim : There certainly was good living, Basie. There - there was opulence!

  Basie : Heh heh. Opulence. Frank, we'll go and take a look at some of these houses. Let's go, Frank. Opulence.

• Basie : Oh, buying and selling, Frank. You know. Life.

• Jim : We'll have to leave the camp?

  Basie : That's the idea, Jim. First one side feeds you and the other side tries to get you killed, then it's turned around; it's all timing.

• Basie : What did you say your name was boy?

  Jamie : Jamie and I'm building a man-flying kite and writing a book called Contract Bridge.

  Basie : *Jim.* A new name for a new life.

• Basie : Jesus, those Coney Island pilots!

• Basie : The plan is we're going to get a sampan. Take it up the Yangtze estuary. Rendezvous with some Hakka friends.

  Jim : Are they proper pirates, do you mean?

  Basie : Well, let's just call them gentlemen of fortune, shall we?

• Basie : It's at the beginning and end of war that we have to watch out. In between, it's like a country club.

• [Tossing a pair of sunglasses to Jim as the Japanese army begin to beat him] 

  Basie : I want these back when they're done.

• Dainty : What else you betting with Baise?

  Basie : My LIFE.

  [shows a copy of LIFE magazine] 

• Jim : Basie, where do you live?

  Basie : Here.

  Jim : No, I mean after the war.

  Basie : Somewhere else.

• Frank : [Frank and Basie see Japanese men dancing in the house]  Damn it Basie, they're Japs

  Basie : I can see that Frank, back out of here.

  Frank : I can't back out, there's no reverse

  Basie : Just go foward

  Frank : Come on.

• Basie : This war is definitely winding down.

  Jim : And after that?

  Basie : After that - I retire in luxury, start a barber college.