The Last Emperor (1987)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Writers:

Enzo Ungari (initial screenplay collaboration)
Mark Peploe (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 December 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

He was the Lord of Ten Thousand Years, the absolute monarch of China. He was born to rule a world of ancient tradition. Nothing prepared him for our world of change.

Plot:

The story of the final Emperor of China.

Plot Keywords:

Emperor | China | Forbidden City | Japanese | Japan

Awards:

Won 9 Oscars. Another 39 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

John Lone	...	Pu Yi - Adult
Joan Chen	...	Wan Jung
Peter O'Toole	...	Reginald 'R. J.' Johnston
Ruocheng Ying	...	The Governor (as Ying Ruocheng)
Victor Wong	...	Chen Pao Shen
Dennis Dun	...	Big Li
Ryûichi Sakamoto	...	Amakasu
Maggie Han	...	Eastern Jewel
Ric Young	...	Interrogator
Vivian Wu	...	Wen Hsiu (as Wu Jun Mei)
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa	...	Chang (as Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa)
Jade Go	...	Ar Mo
Fumihiko Ikeda	...	Yoshioka
Richard Vuu	...	Pu Yi - 3 Years
Tsou Tijger	...	Pu Yi - 8 Years (as Tijger Tsou)

Also Known As:

L'ultimo imperatore (Italy)
Le dernier empereur (France)
Modai huangi (China: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

163 min | 219 min (television version)

Country:

China | Italy | UK | France

Language:

English | Mandarin | Japanese

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (1999) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Germany:12 (director's cut) | Germany:12 | UK:15 (director's cut) | Iceland:12 | Brazil:Livre | USA:TV-14 (TV rating) | Italy:T | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-11 (re-rating) | Finland:K-14 (original rating) | France:U | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Netherlands:12 (director's cut)

Filming Locations:

Beijing Studios, Beijing, China

Company:

Hemdale Film

Trivia:

Security was so tight around the shoot, that when, one day, Peter O'Toole forgot his pass, he was denied entrance to the set.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Mr. Johnston enters the emperor's service during the 1919 May Fourth student movement. Thus, Pu Yi is 13 years of age, not 15.

Quotes:

Pu Yi, at 15: Who is this George Washington?
Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: A famous American, your majesty. A revolutionary general, the first American president.
Pu Yi, at 15: Ah, like Mr. Lenin in Russia?
Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: Not quite.
Pu Yi, at 15: Does he have a car?
Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: He lived a long time ago, your majesty.
Pu Yi, at 15: *I* want a car.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: War of the Colossal Beast (#4.19)" (1991)

Soundtrack:

Am I Blue

Heaven's Mandate

Back when I was a university student studying a course in the Far East we learned the term 'Heaven's Mandate'. It was said that when one dynasty overthrew another, the mandate from powers above to rule China had been lost and a new mandate was given to the winners. It was a self fulfilling idea because if the Mings went out and the Manchus went in it was because the Manchus now had the Mandate. The Last Emperor is the story of Young emperor Pu Yi who was the last Manchu Emperor, crowned at the age of 3 in 1908 and removed in 1911 during the revolution. Pu Yi spent half the rest of his life trying to gain that back and the other half trying to roll with the punches for making some very bad choices in trying for the former. By that time if you want to extend the idea, the mandate now fell to Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communists. Still very few people had as colorful, as tumultuous, and as epic a life as Pu Yi as portrayed by Chinese actor John Lone. Whatever else Pu Yi was, he was a survivor and maybe if he hasn't got Heaven's mandate any more, he's at least got a heavenly place. From 1911 until he was kicked out, the young Emperor was still permitted to run a kind of fairyland kingdom in the Forbidden City area of Peking which was the exclusive domain of the Chinese Emperors for centuries. During that time he had an English tutor in Peter O'Toole, the one major occidental player in The Last Emperor. The relationship here is similar to the one shown in Seven Years In Tibet between Brad Pitt as Heinrich Harrer and the young Dalai Lama. Here though the emphasis is on the pupil not the tutor. The Last Emperor is an epic international achievement, not possible during the years of Mao Tse-tung's rule. As a film it received great international respect winning nine Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Bernardo Bertolucci. That's quite a mandate in and of itself. Though the film is more than two and half hours long I guarantee your interest will not flag. And it really is worth it to see at the very end the elderly Emperor's meeting with the new Red Guards of Mao's Cultural Revolution and that bit of symbolism with the cricket. Absolutely priceless, just as the film is.