A spectacle, but simplistic, exoticized and fetishized: a look at a crumbling empire

Rating: 5/10 (1 February 2018)

People watching "The Last Emperor" usually fall into two camps: one group who are smitten by the spectacle, lavish customs and costumes of the foreign culture; and those who find the movie wanting. I'm sorry to say I belong to the second camp.
This movie comes across as a heavily exoticized melodrama, sans nuances, of the last emperor of China, Henry Pu Yi, who had a Scotsman for a tutor, lived through the demise of his Chinese/Manchurian empire, then tried to set up a new Manchukuo in China's northeast but in the end was turned into a puppet ruler by the Japanese imperialists. He eventually became a lowly gardener, reformed in a Communist labor camp.
While the spectacle grand, the costumes and sets beautifully designed, and the film lavishly lensed by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, what remains of the film is not enough to coalesce into an integrated artistic whole. "The Last Emperor" comes across as one of those exotic breed of western films which are there solely to pander to western tastes, penned by a western writer with little knowledge of Chinese or Manchu culture. It will win many awards at the Oscars, but is ultimately no better than a soulless cardboard pastiche of the real thing.
First off, what's with the use of pidgin English dialogue? Out of the respect for the culture the movie really ought to be shot in the Mandarin language, not in some foreignized pidgin version of that Chinese tongue. Much of it sounds like it was dubbed during the days of Fu Manchu when China was heavily stereotyped by the West. Does this film go any further than perpetuate this stereotype?
Secondly, the director shines too much of a magnifying glass over the Chinese/Manchu culture, yet many aspects coming across as inaccurate or over-fetishized. What's with the lolling breasts of Pu Yi's young nanny, her nipples constantly exposed, or his wife's translucent see-through negligee? Or the lesbian Manchurian spy nibbling the toes of her imperial mistress? They don't add anything to the narrative. And who would step into the imperial bedroom without being announced?
The film is also not nuanced in its depiction of China or the people and personalities who interact with the emperor at that time. The only enlightened person is Pu Yi's Scots tutor, who introduced to him a bicycle. The consorts are a bunch of useless, tittering old hags, the Communists are largely berating, the rest of China is anonymous, largely devoid of personality. Even the prison interrogator is played with nauseating Maoist overtones by a Mao lookalike, complete with perfumed make-up and intimidating gestures.
Only one or two characters from this epic drama turn the head, the prison warden is one, and Pu Yi's wife the Empress another. But the screenwriters don't develop the back stories much, which is really a shame.
One good thing is the casting. The child actors playing Pu Yi are uniformly superb. John Lone too is excellent playing the lonely but manipulated emperor. Joan Chen acquits herself adequately as the empress. Given the fact they are heavily handicapped by a lackluster script, they have done well.
The best part of the movie comes at the end, when Pu Yi witnesses the castigation of his prison warden during the Cultural Revolution, then gives a young red cadet a cricket canister hidden behind his Forbidden City throne. It gives a tantalizing view on what might have been if the screenwriter and the director decided to develop the script in a more nuanced manner. Yes, "The Last Emperor" may depict successfully a sad, lonely monarch of a crumbling empire, but much of it also comes across as exoticized and foreignized. And the payoff at the end is simply not enough.