Lush and opulent but disappointing epic spectacle

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 2006)

This is a legendary grand cinematic epic, this time focused on the People's Republic of China, the nation's history portrayed through the changing fortunes of its tragic final emperor, a puppet occupying a position only of ceremonial significance. It has wonderful authentic costumes and thousands of extras, permission being granted for its filming within the Forbidden City itself, a huge imperial complex of 250 acres. However, it's a film that disappointed me personally. I found it both confusing at the time and forgettable long term.
The film relates China's history through the prism of its last emperor, Pu Yi...his birth, brief childhood reign after being crowned emperor at age three, captivity in his own palace, taking of both a wife and a concubine, abdication and decline into a dissolute lifestyle, exploitation by the Japanese as emperor of Manchuguo, re education by the Communists, life as a regular peasant in the People's Republic and death as a humble gardener in Peking's Botanical Gardens.
My main complaint, lacking much personal knowledge of the history, is confusion as to the story, especially given the story telling method of both flash back and flash forward. It was all very artistic as opposed to informative, and presumed a considerable background knowledge of Chinese history on the part of the viewer. Although the film painted a vivid and compelling portrait of this tragic historical figure for me at the time, the images left me soon after I departed the theatre so something must have been lacking.