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Rated: PG-13
Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen, et al.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Review
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
------------ By that I mean with great
respect! Bernardo Bertolucci is known for such cinematic extravaganzas as
1973's LAST TANGO IN PARIS and 1977's 1900; and to add to his credits,
1987's Best Picture winner THE LAST EMPEROR!
A film of major diversity. An Italian director (Bertolucci),
a predominately Chinese cast including frequent costars John Lone and Joan
Chen, British actor and seven-time Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole, an
American producer named Jeremy Thomas, and distributed by an American
studio, Columbia Pictures! John Lone is the title
character, Chinese emperor "Henry" Pu-Yi, who became the last Emperor of
China at the age of 3, and would be the "Lord of Ten Thousand Years!"
Nothing would prepare him for the change that would eventually occur when
he is forced into abdication, forced into retaking his kingdom, and
forcing him to attempt suicide after his arrest and capture by Chinese and
Russian communist troops after World War II. Eventually, after serving his
time for conspiracy, he released from prison and lives out the rest of his
life in 1967 -- as a simple gardener. Imagine. From Emperor
to gardener, totally heartbreaking! Heartbreaking is the fact that it cost
him EVERYTHING! His wife "Elizabeth" Wan Jung, played with grace by the
gorgeous Joan Chen; his kingdom and his freedom. But, you can't simply
hate the guy! He is, of course, a man who was spoiled by his servants and
soldiers as a child.
The film has both an epic scope and an excellently-written
character story. (Though most historians believed that the film
embellished on certain facts, like Pu-Yi's homosexuality.) It is played
competently by an Asian cast and a wonderfully witty Peter O'Toole, who
should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor that year, as the
Emperor's patient tutor Reginald "R.J." Johnston. Needless
to say, I cried at the very end of this film! I LOVED that scene between
the elder Pu-Yi and a little boy who appears to be just like the Emperor
as a child. And the symbolic message this film taught with the cricket in
the jar, as the little boy opens the jar to reveal the insect (by then, Pu-Yi
has magically disappeared). An epic film with a heart (like my PRISONER OF
WAR)! Winner of all 9 of its nominations including: Best
Picture - Jeremy Thomas, producer; Best Director - Bernardo Bertolucci;
Best Adapted Screenplay - Bertolucci and Mark Peploe; Best Cinematography;
Best Art Direction/Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; Best Score; Best
Sound; and Best Film Editing.
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