Product Details

• Actors: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying, Victor Wong
• Directors: Bernardo Bertolucci
• Writers: Bernardo Bertolucci, Enzo Ungari, Henry Pu-yi, Mark Peploe
• Producers: Franco Giovale, Jeremy Thomas, John Daly
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Live / Artisan
• VHS Release Date: February 23, 1999
• Run Time: 163 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0784012164
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,266 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Everything that was good about the 163-minute theatrical release of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 is even better in this new 218-minute director's cut. By contrast, much that was peculiarly distant and lifeless the first time around isn't really better or worse in this edition. Conclusion: the net gains are considerable if you invest time to appreciate Bertolucci's full feeling for the odd story of Pu Yi, China's final monarch. You remember the saga: taken from his mother at the age of three, Pu Yi is brought into the enclosed walls of the Forbidden City to replace the real emperor. There he becomes a pampered prisoner and hollow symbol of an older monarchy that has since given way to a ruthless, 20th century republic. With his pining loyalists beheaded or kept at bay by armed soldiers outside the City's walls, Pu Yi is tutored by an English gentleman (Peter O'Toole) and wed to a kindred spirit (Joan Chen). Eventually cast from his gated paradise, Pu Yi (wonderfully portrayed in adulthood by John Lone) becomes, by turns, a playboy, a dupe to the Japanese, and a victim of China's cultural reforms and re-education programs. This longer cut largely top-loads the film with greater reason to feel compassion for the emperor, with his often wordless sense-adventure in the mysteries that could only be known to one little boy plunged into indecipherable alien decorum, robbed of self-determination and common sense by his infinite privilege. Added scenes (including some in the political rehabilitation camp where Pu Yi is held for a decade) fill out not so much added facts as density of experience. This improved The Last Emperor is richer in soul and a pronounced sense of Bertolucci actually directing this film in the most personal and profound sense. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking movie that deserves better treatment on DVD, March 28, 2001

By 

Cainz "cainz" (Lops Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Emperor - Director's Cut (DVD)

I'll make this review short and sweet. First off, the movie itself is derserving of all its Oscar wins. The acting is superb, the cinematography is breathtaking, and the story is significant if not moving. If you are a movie lover you will certainly appreciate the beauty and power of this film. So why only 3 stars? I simply can't give the DVD more than 3 stars, becuase quite frankly, this movie deserves a better film transfer and better audio on DVD. The picture is sub-par when you compare it to almost all the new DVD releases today, and the sound is a little better, but not by much. Perhaps the studio should revisit this title and clean it up with a loaded new special edition release with a squeaky clean anamorphic picture transfer with DD 5.1 and DTS sound to boast. This DVD's director's cut is also much longer than the original, which in my opinion, doesn't hurt the film at all, but it doesn't improve the film drastically either. So base your buying decision on the following fact: this is a masterpiece movie on a sub-par DVD transfer. To me, the movie was a must have DVD, which was worth the purchase price alone. Afterall, it is still better than VHS.

78 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars DON'T EVEN CONSIDER BUYING THIS MOVIE ON DVD, March 9, 2003

By 

Nix Pix (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Emperor - Director's Cut (DVD)

"The Last Emperor" is the Academy Award winning movie about China's last imperial ruler, Pu Yi (John Lone). Taken from his mother at the age of three and raised to believe in his own divinity as absolute monarch, Pu Yi?s marriage to Wan Jung (Joan Chen) is marred by her opium addiction and the tragic death of their only child and heir to the throne. Peter O?Toole appears as Reginald Johnston, English tutor to his majesty in the ways of diplomacy and the outside world. The film presents China?s Forbidden City as allegory for the pampered but caged existence of wealth and the destructive nature of absolute power. Eventually forced to flee his gated paradise, Pu Yi succumbs to the decadence of becoming a playboy, a stooge of the Japanese, and a victim of China's cultural reforms and re-education programs.

The film is a poignant, heart-breaking, tragic and sweeping saga that won, among its other award, the Oscar for best cinematography. But you'd ever guess it by looking at this DVD transfer. The 2:35:1 image has not been anamorphically enhanced and exhibits just about every digital anomaly that one can find on a poorly mastered DVD. There's edge enhancement, aliasing, fine detail shimmering, color smearing, tiling, color distortion, loss of fine details, extremely low contrast levels, disturbing halos and fading of the film?s negative. There are chips, scratches, tears and camera negative jitter. The audio is a rather dismal 2.0 mix. After viewing this travesty it is my sincere hope that whoever was responsible for mastering this DVD will never get the opportunity to be near such equipment again. There are no extras and no reason why anyone should invest in this DVD.
BOTTOM LINE: JUST DO NOT BUY THIS MOVIE! There's nothing to recommend the print used or the mastering employed to bring it to the small screen. If there was room to rate this disc as 'zero' stars I would have done just that. Unfortunately, 'one' is the lowest I could go.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Excellent movie, *very* terrible DVD, December 6, 2001

By 

Beeeil (Unionville, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Emperor - Director's Cut (DVD)

While this is an excellent and engaging movie, DVD collectors should wait until another release to become available. The picture quality of this DVD is amazingly BAD, worse than VHS in some segments. Picture is dark in general, resolution low, colors bleed all over the place, and dialogs are difficult to understand. I am not sure how the disc was mastered, but the person who did it should be fired.

It was a mistake to have purchased it sight unseen. 1 star for being a good movie and the commentary.