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If ever there was a film title that gave away the plot, it was Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War. Kanjuro Arashi plays the titular emperor, whose militaristic stance during the 1905 war with Russia transformed Japan into a major world power -- for better or worse. The film's battle scenes are spectacular, but the dialogue sequences and the performances are well-below accepted standards of 1958. For reasons best known to the Toho Company, Emperor Meiji etc. was selected as an entry for the Museum of Modern Art's Japanese Film Festival. The wisdom of this choice was cast in doubt as the patrons began walking out of the film in droves.