Amazon.com Essentials:
Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this
sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a
dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It
follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City,
where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion
people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for
himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell
of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's
Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but
this movie focuses more on visuals than characterization
anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful,
filling the screen with saturated colors and exquisite detail. It won
nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best
Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Amazon.com Essentials:
Everything that was good about the 163-minute theatrical
release of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 is
even better in this new 218-minute director's cut. By contrast, much
that was peculiarly distant and lifeless the first time around isn't
really better or worse in this edition. Conclusion: the net gains are
considerable if you invest time to appreciate Bertolucci's full
feeling for the odd story of Pu Yi, China's final monarch. You
remember the saga: taken from his mother at the age of three, Pu Yi is
brought into the enclosed walls of the Forbidden City to replace the
real emperor. There he becomes a pampered prisoner and hollow symbol
of an older monarchy that has since given way to a ruthless, 20th
century republic. With his pining loyalists beheaded or kept at bay
by armed soldiers outside the City's walls, Pu Yi is tutored by an
English gentleman (Peter O'Toole) and wed to a kindred spirit (Joan
Chen). Eventually cast from his gated paradise, Pu Yi (wonderfully
portrayed in adulthood by John Lone) becomes, by turns, a playboy, a
dupe to the Japanese, and a victim of China's cultural reforms and
re-education programs. This longer cut largely top-loads the film with
greater reason to feel compassion for the emperor, with his often
wordless sense-adventure in the mysteries that could only be known to
one little boy plunged into indecipherable alien decorum, robbed of
self-determination and common sense by his infinite privilege. Added
scenes (including some in the political rehabilitation camp where Pu
Yi is held for a decade) fill out not so much added facts as density
of experience. This improved The Last Emperor is richer in soul
and a pronounced sense of Bertolucci actually directing this film in
the most personal and profound sense. --Tom Keogh
