The Last Emperor [DVD] [1988][Special Edition]

A visually stunning movie directed by Bertolucci, The Last Emperor traces the life and history of the last emperor of China in the context of the Japanese invasion and the cultural revolution launched by Mao. John Lone gives a great performance as the mature ex-emperor imprisoned during the cultural revolution, and Peter O'Toole plays the boy emperor's tutor in a deeply moving way. One of the great movies, in my opinion.

It is great fim, visually. It's also probably an important historical exploration of 20th Century China. How far it is truthful about Pu Yi is another matter. By all accounts he was a spoiled brat who liked to torture and abuse people, when he had the power to do so. This aspect is glossed over, and instead portrays the emperor as a cypher and a victim.

A magnificent and epic film - not one to watch if you're in a rush! Would rent it again most certainly.

Arrow Video, one of the best and reliable suppliers of quality Videos. I was pleased how fast it arrived and the quality of the packaging made it arrived without damage.

Great reasonably accurate history of these turbulent times

Very good film very pleased with it

Always highly enjoy this film & book. Extremely well done & no wonder it won 9 Oscars!!

There is some interesting controversy about aspect ratios and cuts with variousreleases of the film. The Criterion releases have been reformatted fromthe original 2:35 to 2:1, but it was done at the request of, and under thesupervision of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.Also, the Criterion BR doesn't have the longer Italian TV cut, but the2 disc Criterion DVD does.Then there is this 2 disc Optimum UK DVD set which has the film init's original 2:35 theatrical ratio (and a quite nice transfer, if not quiteup to Criterion's quality.) It also contains the longer TV cut, but in atransfer much weaker than the Criterion DVD.Now, as for the film itself...I can understand someone loving "The Last Emperor" (as I do), or beingbored stiff. Visually ravishing, it is an epic film about an empty man,the last emperor of China Pu Yi.Raised from birth with no real experience of the outside world, trainedonly to fulfill his role as a symbolic figurehead, we watch Pu Yi sweptalong by the great tides of history in the 20th century east. Onlyafter going through ten years 're-education' at the hands of theChinese communists does he start to seem connected to the world and tohimself.The film forces a lot of challenging 're-thinking'. While clearly notforgiving the murderous excesses of the Chinese cultural revolution inthe 60s, it does show that ' at least in this specific case ' theharshness of the Chinese communists was better for Pu Yi as a humanbeing than the false kindness of all those that surrounded him for muchof his life.There are weak spots. Peter O'Toole - who I usually love - is at hismost self-consciously theatrical as Pu Yi's western tutor, a tone thatmakes it feel like he's in a different film. Some scenes feel like pureexposition, with characters having conversations only so we theaudience understands historical context. And it's sometimes hard tostay fully connected to a 165 minute epic about an empty man (although'Citizen Kane' could be looked at that way).But in the end, when Pu Yi finds some measure of happiness andwholeness as a simple gardener, there is a fascinating feeling of deepemotional reward for much of what felt flat earlier.The Italian TV cut is almost a full hour longer than the featureversion (which Bertolucci is now said to prefer), I find each havedifferent strengths. I agree that the longer version is a bit "moreboring" to quote the director himself, but it also fills out the storyin important ways. By giving us more information about Pu Yi'schildhood, and time in prison (even if some of those scenes do feel abit clunky with exposition) his character feels much more fleshed out,less of a cipher. More a man, less a symbol. And some of the importantchanges both in the story and in his personality feel less sudden orconfusing. Probably my personal 'perfect' version would split thedifference, but I was very glad to see this alternate cut.