The Last Emperor

In 1908, 3-year-old Yu Pi is brought before the dying Empress Dowager: “You will be the new Lord of Ten Thousand Years. You will be the Son of Heaven.“ But China is changing, and Yu Pi, becomes a hostage to history, and a lens through which Bertolucci traces 60 tumultuous years of China’s history, of war, revolution, and Mao.

Bertolucci’s sumptuous dramatization of the life story of China's last emperor, Pu Yi was the first Western feature film authorized by the People's Republic of China to film in Beijing’s Forbidden City and earned nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Score, shared by Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti recreated Ching dynasty China with remarkable detail and the sweep of the film is evident in the detail that members of the People’s Liberation Army served as some of its 19,000 extras.

“Bernardo Bertolucci’s visually ravishing spectacle about the life of Pu Yi (1905-1967), the last Chinese emperor, is a genuine rarity: a blockbuster that manages to be historically instructive and intensely personal at the same time.…a haunting meditation on the processes of history.“ (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)

“In 1987’s The Last Emperor … the simple, childlike melodies of the early scenes speak to the internalized life of the protagonist, who was crowned emperor of China at the age of two and lived in seclusion in the Forbidden City through his teenage years. When the monarch Pu Yi (played by John Lone) finally leaves his palace and confronts the outside world, Sakamoto comes rushing in with an orchestral blast of ominous yet strangely stirring strings. The film and its score are a meditation on the majesty and menace of power. Every note of triumph for Pu Yi hastens his downfall and damnation.” (Bilge Ebri, Village Voice)

Film website: www.janusfilms.com/films/1866