The Last Emperor | | Cast : | John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole | | Director : | Bernardo Bertolucci | | Studio : | Artisan Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | December 18, 1987 | | DVD Released Date : | February 03, 1999 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 04, 2005 | | Summary | The Las Emperor | Content
 | I have not received this item. However my credit card has been
billed. Help, please. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 19, 2005 | | Summary | Beautiful, brilliant, epic film, S**t DVD!!! | Content
| What a shame that such an important film from one of cinemas greatest directors would be given such worthless treatment on DVD! And I thought that the Last Tango in Paris transfer was bad! This transfer has to be one of the worst that I've ever seen! There's no extras whatsoever! The extra footage is alright but should've been added as bonus material or both versions should've been made available. Filmgoers are honestly better off finding a widescreen version on VHS (the picture quality would be better). Artisan sucks! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 04, 2005 | | Summary | did we really need an extra 55 minutes???????? | Content
| This movie was slow paced to begin with, but the extended version took three days to watch. I know there was a great story somewhere in the cryptic or confusing dialouge and long long LONG takes, but it is lost among the overblown proportion of this movie. Get the original cut if possible. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 03, 2005 | | Summary | Five stars with a reservation | Content
| My attention did not wane while waching this long film. This is the story of the last emperor of China, Pu Yi, who was installed at the age of three. At a very young age, he learned that he could do whatever he wanted to do. However, within a few years, when he was still a pre teenage boy, he discovered that China became a repubilic and that he was only a figurehead, as he reigned in the cloistered Forbidden City. He was living in a beautiful setting, with an English tutor played by Peter O'Tole but, he was basically a prisoner in this setting. As he grew, his life continually changed. He married both the woman who by virtue of the union was the Empress as well as a "secondary consort." He began to modernize, cutting his hair and playing tennis in western style tennis clothes. Another change in China forced him to flee where he became a western style playboy.
As the Japanese overrran Manchuria, he was reinstalled there and, quite frankly was duped. He was a figurehead and altough purportedly, he was a sovereign Emperor, the equal of Japan's Hirohito, in fact, it was Hirohito who was in control. As he returned to his old title, the old traditions were gone as he now dressed in modern military uniforms. Ultimately, the Communists took over and he was imprisoned and "re-educated" as he became a common citizen. This is not so much an action movie as it is the unfolding of a process. It is experiential for the viewer. The movie is sort of set in 1950 Communist China with the bulk of the movie being flashbacks to 1908 when he was installed, on forward. Finally, the movie moves beyond 1950, ultimately to 1967. It is beautifully filmed and superbly directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. It certainly held my attention thus, five stars.
Now, here is my reservation: this movie won the 1987 academy award for best picture. This director's cut adds about 55 minutes to the legnth of the film. Yes, it's long but that is not my reservation. Rather, since the movie won best picture, I would like to see what the members of the academy saw when they bestowed that honor. A movie that is nearly an hour longer is not the same one that won best picture. I think that this should be a two dvd set with one showing the picture as it was released and the other showing the additional scenes.
|
|
