The Last Emperor

Last night I got to cross another film off the list of films that won the Oscar for Best Picture when I attended a screening of a 4K restoration of Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 historical epic The Last Emperor. The story begins in 1950, with the former emperor Pu Yi (John Lone) as a political prisoner of war in Fushun Prison. The story then rewinds to 1908, when Pu Yi was crowned Emperor of China at only three years old. However, the title becomes only a symbol, as China becomes an independent republic. Confined in the walls of the Forbidden City, Pu Yi receives a Western education from his British tutor Reginald Johnston (Peter O'Toole) and through arranged marriage weds the Emperess Wanrong (Joan Chen) and his secondary consort Wenxiu (Vivian Wu). Later in life, after being exiled from the Forbidden City, Pu Yi becomes the puppet ruler of the Japanese colony of Manchukuo, formerly Pu Yi's birthplace of Manchuria, which leads to his imprisonment following World War II.

The Last Emperor Synopsis

The Last Emperor is a historical epic co-written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci (Last Tango in Paris). The film is notable for being the first Western feature to be authorized by the People's Republic of China to be filmed in the Forbidden City in Beijing. The film stars John Lone (M. Butterfly) as the adult Pu Yi, the titular Last Emperor of China. The nearly three-hour-long film takes place over six decades, beginning when Pu Yi is crowned emperor as a toddler. With a supporting cast that includes Asian actors Joan Chen (Twin Peaks), Vivian Wu (The Joy Luck Club), and Victor Wong (Big Trouble in Little China), the film also features Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia) as the sole caucasian protagonist, playing Pu Yi's longtime British tutor Reginald Johnston.

My Thoughts on The Last Emperor

The Last Emperor is probably best remembered for not only its historical collaboration with China but also the fact that the film swept all nine Academy Awards that it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Score, with composer Ryuichi Sakamoto also having a small acting role in the film as Japanese officer Masahiko Amakasu. The Last Emperor was the first film of Bernardo Bertolucci's “Oriental Trilogy,” which also includes 1990's The Sheltering Sky and 1993's Little Buddha.

In light of recent attempts that have Asian-centric films by Asian filmmakers, such as last year's Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once, probably the element of The Last Emperor that hasn't aged well in 37 years is the fact that it is a Chinese story directed by a white Italian filmmaker, with all the dialogue being entirely in English. If you look closely at the nine Oscars for The Last Emperor, they all went to British or Italian crew members, with the only Asian winner being composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, which he shared with David Byrne of Talking Heads and Chinese composer Cong Su. None of the film's cast ended up being nominated, not even the token white role played by Peter O'Toole.

Despite nitpicking the crew behind the camera, The Last Emperor itself is a fine enough film, with arguably the only problematic scene being one that has Pu Yi singing at his villa, with the camera pulling back to reveal that all the musicians are in blackface, which while representative of the 1920s time period of the scene, is still somewhat uncomfortable to watch. I also ended up feeling the length of The Last Emperor, with the film's three-hour running time feeling much longer.

It seems that lengthy historical dramas have always been attractive to voters for the Academy Award for Best Picture. With its clean sweep at the 60th Academy Awards, going against Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory, and Moonstruck, The Last Emperor joined films such as Laurence of Arabia, Gandhi, and later winners Schindler's List, Braveheart, and The English Patient in following this pattern. That's not to say that The Last Emperor isn't a film worth watching, but it is very much a product of the era it was made.