Visually breathtaking film with amazing costume designs. It was very touching, particularly the way the story comes full circle in the end. What a tumultuous life! My only complaint is that it’s a very long film, and I have to admit it was a bit slow in the middle. But definitely worth watching.

Bertolucci’s masterpiece! If you can find the unedited directors cut available on the Criterion Channel, settle back and watch one of the last truly great epic’s ever made.

It's wild that this is actually true, it's quite the epic. It's hard to sympathize with the main character, however, in the way they tell it, even though they supposedly cast him in a slightly more favorable light than history records. The score is an interesting choice too for the setting of the film, it's very synthy and odd/eerie. Ryuichi Sakamoto is amazing, I just think it's a weird fit for the era of the story. There is some interesting political commentary happening, and the fact that China permitted this to be filmed and told, tells you that they likely had some say in it. The communist party red guard at the end provided an interesting footnote to the contrast of ruling systems. Overall, it's a really good film, as evidenced by its Oscar's sweep that year. Yet with its poetic (and dated storytelling) style, it ends up feeling kind of slow and dragging toward the back third, rendering it a little bit of a chore to get through.

Very slow, very boring, sorry critics, you got this one wrong.

Absolutely loved it! One of my favourite movies, I strongly reccomend it.

The best movie I have ever seen. It was recommended to us by 2 different tour guides of Chinese heritage during our visit to China. The amazing story it tells is the true history of 20th century China from Qing dynasty through communism. Much of it was filmed in The Forbidden City of Beijing before westerners had access and before it became the tourist mecca it is today. It's a spectacularly beautiful film. Many of the professional film critics' reviews criticize the "plot", not recognizing that the movie is a historical narrative of the vastly changing culture of more than a billion people.

The loneliest boy in the world, forever a prisoner. The story flows to and fro in poignant fashion, aided by arresting visuals that appear bleak in the present and vivid in the past; and culminates as not just an epic tale of Chinese history, but a sad depiction of a man who never lived the life he wanted.

The perspective and narrative are obviously very Western in execution but Bertolucci was making this for American and European audiences. It is accessible history that is still fairly honest. I do wish the final section was a lot longer as I think that's where the film's most compelling stretch falls.

Not a lot of big names aside from Peter O' Toole A terrific performance by Jon Leone even if it pushes it going at 2 and a half hours The camerawork is magnificent even if the script is less than the sum of its parts The film also acts as a mediation on monarchy but also chronicles delusion and debachuary Succeeds by being unsentimental with a terrific performance by Leone And it ends on poetic concision with a ruler that lived until the very end of his reign in life not just his title

[Theatrical Cut] Engrossing true story with a significant amount of historical scale and depth.

The directors version has more details to build up the deep emotion. Especially after the Emperor claimed the throne of Manchu Guo.

excelente experiencia visual, cómo consiguieron grabar en la ciudad prohibida ??? ay yo quiero ser asianóloga ):

A fun and interesting movie to watch. My main complain is that some of the actors who supposedly play as the Manchu aristocrats look more like Southern Chinese than Manchu people.

Though maybe dated a bit (I found it a bit of a tough sit through this time out) this is one sweeping epic about the last Emperor of Manchuria / China and, when various government people took over, how various government people screwed him over, eventually winding up in a work camp prison. It's majestic, glorious to look at, but by the 2 hour mark, your butt will start getting sore.

"You went to Manchuria by your own choice because you wanted to be emperor again!" Was there some sort of personification realized and narratively studied? This humane masterpiece dramatizes China's titular societal finalization of Puyi's life as he, toddler aged, was taken from his home after being picked by an ailing empress to lead the nation. The framework finds him captured by the Red Army as a war criminal in 1950, and he recounts his childhood and how his reign led to his current situation. He had any sort of luxury, along with blinded power since he was forbidden to ever interact with the outside world beyond his kingdom-like Forbidden City, including any complex politicism. His shrunken world dramatically changes as revolution sweeps through China that eventually exposes him to the outside world, with his nurtured thirst for power retained as a form of denying the commonfolk status. Even when he got imprisoned later in life, the only difference is the lack of the luxurious lifestyle whereas everything was done for him, meaning he's been imprisoned for most of his life from the entire sheltered childhood to exposed adulthood. As dramatization goes, it doesn't fully embody the whole story to the behavioral-wise extent from looking at omitted details regarding the usual sorts of historical inaccuracy. But even when acknowledging those afterwards, it adds into the understanding how the storytelling process enables us to sympathize with Puyi's imprisoned soul that nurtured certain addiction he just couldn't pull himself away from till much later. Maybe director Bernardo Bertolucci indeed considered the other factual side and offered as glimpses as prompts then focused on finding the humane center that not many could dive deep for. The final scene's beauty perfectly concluded one's life story and everyone's currently fed perception, coming off as symbolically poetic along the respectful lines that only film form could artistically deliver as visual addition to the facts. There are historical texts between carried eyewitness accounts, if not lost in translation along the way, and autobiographies detailing what could be considered a whole story with inspired open-ended speculations contributed from the side. This film may be considered a classic in its own right over the unseen angles accumulated into a perfect resolution over its communication towards modern perceptualized presentations. As for its epic standard, the soulful apparatus signifies the elemental growth whilst arguably an unconventional biographical film that narratively adds onto the facts, leaving the grandeur apparently relied through the cinematography defining that scale. This throws back to previous epics with similar scopes that now dimmed down as very rare occasions. It functions like a carriage but also as an enhancement as it maintains distance amidst certain dimensions while capturing details purposely over their relevance rather than going at every angles. Efficiently achieved by Vittorio Storaro, who peaked then after "Apocalypse Now" with the same stunning vision. We may keep on finding that epic picture being truly the last stemmed by inspiration from Hollywood's Golden Age, "The Last Emperor" is possibly a time capsule looking back at similar grandeur right before the descriptively categorized genre's modernization. The fitting collaboration of Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne and Cong Su provides transportive music that heightens the story and its mesmerizing scale with hinted poeticism throughout. Brilliantly performed with professional ethics in boldly tackling specified hefts, particularly led by John Lone resurrecting Puyi's second chance of life just to retell the story with aligned spiritual passivity. This realized retrospective, albeit questioned nativism under differential tongues even though it enables full envelopment for accessible entertainment value, is admittedly thought-provoking as something to possibly consider under similar flaws proposed in the fact-based character study, but not without inevitable debates, especially regarding the platform. It's just another layer of how much of a masterpiece this film turned out to be, with its accolades rightfully certifying its grand lengths. (A-)

It may be beautifully shot and detailed, but its overall joylessness makes it hard to justify its runtime.

Beautiful film initially set in 2 time periods: the past when a young boy becomes emperor of China and decades later when he is re-educated in a Communist prison. The film covers the emperor's loss of power and change of persona during his time in prison. The film contains amazing scenes set in the Forbidden City. The acting is very good. The overall story is interesting, but could have shown a bit more reflection on the emperor's later life.

The Last Emperor is considered as one of the great epic films of the 1980's, much due to its cinematographical brilliance, but also because it was filmed on true location in the Forbidden City, as the first ever permitted to. That's quite a piece of art in itself, and particularly the first half of the film, basically taking place in this amazing scenery is outstanding. It also works marvellously as a reverse retrospect to the emperor's, or Puyi's, later destiny, where he has become a long time prisoner of the Chinese Communist Revolution. The absurd contrast between the ancient reverence and awe for him as a holly figure in his imperial court, and the degrading simplicity of the state prison is prominent and intriguing, as both circumstances made him a kind of prisoner. However, in its final half the film sadly loses some of its rythm, as so many historical factors come into play. Maybe 163 minutes just wasn't enough after all. Painting a true picture of Puyi and his relations with the Japanese is complicated, but many aspects about this are left out, toned down or given far too little space, like the time he spent in Soviet asylum pre to the Chinese captivity. His emperor personality really was rather remorseless, more disillusioned and obsessed with his holy role than described in Bertolucci's film, but Puyi's personal transformation during ten years in a so called re-education camp was more radical, and his emotional reaction to the final pardon from Mao also stronger. Nevertheless, if not an absolute masterpiece, this film is truly one of a kind.

Told a whole man’s life and a good chunk of history in a concise and interesting way. It was a big undertaking to nail all of the costumes, culture, and traditions involved with the emperor.

Great cinematography and story telling, but boy was that a long watch. For a regular audience member trying to sit through this without being a full fledged history buff, it is a feat.