A grand and proper film

Rating: 9/10 (11 September 2010)

The Last Emperor was a major milestone in Chinese cinema, it was the first Western film allowed to be made since the form of the Communist government in 1949 and it was also the first feature film allowed to be filmed in the Forbidden City. The Last Emperor is a grand story, from 1908 to mid 60s about the last emperor of China.
Told in flashbacks Puyi (John Lone) is a prisoner of the People's Republic of China, he is charged for be a collaborator with the Japanese in Manchuria. As a child Puyi was crowned the emperor of China at the age of three. The film explores his youth in the Forbidden City, where he is pretty much a prisoner who is not allow to be outside in the real world or be with children, to being a brat who can do whatever he wants but with no understanding of the political situation outside his walls, to a smarter young man who wants to reform his court and being tutored by Reginald Johnston (Peter O'Toole). After being removed as the emperor of China he ends up becoming the puppet of emperor of Manchukuo for the Japanese, with his relationship declining as he desires some sort of power.
The Last Emperor is very much like a David Lean film, shot in a similar style, matching his scope on a grand scale and tackling a story he would have handled. The Last Emperor's setting in a Chinese prison was very much like the framing device was very much like the one used in Doctor Zhivago. Visually Bernardo Bertolucci and his cinematographer Vittorio Storaro do make a great looking moving, with large colourful scenes in the Forbidden City to the grab greyness of a Communist Prison. Bertolucci shows a really interesting culture within the Chinese court and there are big ideas about how isolation and a boy being told that he is going to rule and do what ever he wants can really mess up someone's childhood. As a child Puyi was a brat but there is sadness and lonely because he can not be with children, nor be with his mother, resulting with him relying on a wet nurse at an old age. There are also ideas of a child who is meant to be a ruler but obviously has no understanding of the political situation, because of his age and his councillors lie to him. As he gets older he is more politically enlightened and want to be a reformer, but again there are ideas that he still wanted to be a ruler, therefore he ended up in leagues with the Japanese. Bertolucci uses some clever imagery, such as hearing a protest outside the walls of the Forbidden City when the troops start to fire at them, showing both Puyi isolation and powerlessness, as well as the political turmoil that China was suffering. and the coronation of Puyi as emperor of Manchukuo is at a windy, empty mound, a symbol that Puyi was hollow figure for the Japanese: but he was wanting to rule for the good of his people. Another powerful image is when Puyi tries to cycle out of the Forbidden City, seeing Beijing/Peking and the guards shut the gates in front of him. To add to the atmosphere Bertolucci with his composers also employ an excellent Chinese sounding score throughout the film.
There is an excellent cast, giving performances like in a Lean film. Lone was excellent as the Emperor and though it was a weird casting an English man to play a Scot (and not even bother doing an accent), O'Toole was very strong. Ying Ruocheng too gave a good performance as the prison governor and even though it was a very small role, I loved Ric Young as a harsh interrogator. The child actor were very good and confidence in their performances, with Richard Vuu being very sweet as the 3-year-old version of Puyu. Joan Chen was assured (and lovely looking) as Wan Jung, starting out a nice young woman who likes Puyu for being an intelligence young man but slowly destroys herself with opium. I personally would have preferred to have seen the film in Chinese languages but because it was in English the film can appeal to a wider audience: plus my favourite film is Schindler's List which in theory should have been made in German, so I can't really complain.
To anyone who is interested in history or Chinese culture then The Last Emperor is a must see for you. It is also an excellent film if you like Lean films like Doctor Zhivago, Lawerence of Arabia and The Bridge over the River Kwai and the Spielberg film Empire of the Sun.