Product Details

• Actors: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole
• Directors: Bernardo Bertolucci
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Anamorphic
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: November 18, 2008
• Run Time: 164 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001EOQCMG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,485 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Last Emperor" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

LAST EMPEROR - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

137 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blu-ray edition is not a direct carry over from the deluxe 4 DVD edition, January 5, 2009

By 

R. Svendsen (Flagstaff, Arizona) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Last Emperor (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

When I was informed that the Blu-ray of the deluxe 4 disc Criterion edition would be missing the extended cut of 218 minutes, I sent an e-mail to Criterion to confirm this information. I have included my e-mail and the response I received from Jon Mulvany at Criterion. I hope this helps in your decision if you are planning to upgrade to the Blu-ray.

Dear Jon,
I have long been a fan of your company and the fine treatment it gives to movies. I originally purchased one of my all time favorite movies, The Last Emperor earlier this year when it was given the deluxe 4 disc treatment, I was thrilled with all of the extras that were included. I was most impressed that both versions of the movie were included for me to chose from. When it was announced that it was coming to Blu-ray, I sold my copy and was waiting to upgrade. I was! I have learned that the 165 min. version is the only one that will be included on the Blu-ray and not the 218 min (my preferred version) cut. WHY, WHY WHY? I am sad to say, that if this is indeed really true, I will not be upgrading to the Blu-ray version since this would in fact be considered a step down from the standard DVD edition. Why give us a great product initially, but then short change us on the Blu-ray upgrade, How sad!!!

Michael Ruiz

Jon's reply is as follows:

Hi Michael,

When we made the special edition dvd of The Last Emperor, we pulled out the stops. The film won nine Academy Awards - from best picture and director to production design and editing. On top of that, it was the first international film of this scale produced in China, and that story in and of itself was extraordinary. In short, all aspects of the film merited attention and discussion. In addition to the director's cut of the film -- the original theatrical version -- we gave an entire disc to the longer Italian television version of the film for comparison. We also included an elaborate bound book and slipcase to hold the four disc set. Although the set was expensive, at $59.95, it was as close to definitive as we could make it, and we felt it offered good value.


When it came time to make the Blu-ray edition, we felt strongly that a single-disc edition containing all the added content of the four-disc version would offer our customers the best version of the film, the best value, and the best user experience. Having addressed the myth that the television version is the director's cut with our DVD box set, we didn't feel that including it as an extra Blu-ray disc was worth the added cost to the customer. Similarly, because the Blu-ray market place is still much smaller than the market for DVDs, the cost per copy of printing Blu-ray sized perfect-bound books would have driven the price of our edition up to a level we considered prohibitively expensive for consumers.


We also know that many or our customers already own the current dvd set. For them we are offering an upgrade program that will allow them to have the director's preferred version of the film on Blu-ray, while keeping the rest of the original package. Just send in your disc 1 and we'll send you the blu-ray disc for a $20 (+ $5 shipping and handling) replacement fee. If you are determined to have all the content of the DVD edition as well as the Blu-ray disc content, you could always go that route -- buy the DVD set and trade in disc 1 for a Blu-ray. In the end I think the cost would still be less than we would have had to charge to make an all Blu-ray version of our original edition.


I hope this helps you understand our thinking. Thanks, as always, for your support of Criterion.


Sincerely,


Jon Mulvaney

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Director's Cut" versus "Theatrical Cut", October 31, 2008

By 

S. Yen "wiggumpi" (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Emperor (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

This review is not so much a review of the movie or this release in particular. It would seem that there will be no shortage of glorious reviews of this movie and I would just be adding my voice to the gale winds of appraise. I write this to clear up the common mis-perception that the longer cut of this movie is a director's cut.

The previously released longer cut of The Last Emperor which was released on DVD and subsequently labeled as a "Director's Cut" is in fact a longer, made for television mini-series version that was made to satisfy a particular distribution/production deal. Bertolucci himself has gone on record to say that the actual version of the film that he envisioned is the one that went out to theaters, thereby making the shorter "Theatrical Cut" the actual director's cut.

Being the huge fan of this movie that I am, I can't help but want more of this movie, but I'd be lying if I said that the shorter version isn't great just as it is. The movie does not lose any of its magic without the added content. I've given this review a 4 star rating because of the completist in me. If there are two versions of a movie out there. I would enjoy the option of playing the version that I want. Criterion did so with their DVD release, but failed to do it with their Blu-ray release. Welcome to double-dip country. As of this writing, I still have not determined if I shall fall prey to their marketing ploy since I have been waiting so long for a good transfer of this film.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Widescreen image cropped!, August 21, 2010

By 

Byron (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Emperor (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

This is not a rating of the film, which is excellent, but of this particular edition.

Unfortunately Criterion fell into the same trap that the producers of the previous "Apocalypse Now" DVDs did. They allowed Vittorio Storaro, the original cinematographer, to tamper with the widescreen image. Storaro has been on a crusade for the last few years to advocate 2.00:1 as the most desirable widescreen aspect ratio. This is fine if applied to new productions but, disastrously, he wants to demonstrate his passion for this by going back and chopping up movies he worked on in years past. Despite whatever care he may have taken in this project, it is painfully obvious in many scenes that some of the screen image has been cropped from the sides. I compared this to the scenes in their original ratio of 2.35 and there is significant information missing. In tight scenes inside cars you often lose portions of people seated on either side of the picture. The worst for me, though, was what happened to a couple of the breathtaking scenes where the child emperor is viewing the large assembled crowd of his subjects. In the original framing you can see the complete perfectly symmetrical formations filling the screen and perfectly tapering off right at the edges of the picture. In this version chunks of that image are chopped off on either side and a lot of the power and beauty of the scene is diminished.

I had been eagerly anticipating this release but the butchering of the image took all of the joy out of it for me. Even though other aspects of the package such as the extras are very nice and well done, I ended up selling off my copy
I'm surprised and disappointed that Criterion let something like this happen.

Fortunately the new Apocalypse Now blu-ray has corrected the previous poor decision and is restoring that movie to its original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio. I just hope that Criterion, or someone, will do the same thing somewhere down the line and give us a proper release of The Last Emperor.
It's been frustrating since the previous Artisan DVD was in the proper aspect ratio but the transfer itself was horrible. The visual quality of this transfer is a huge improvement but the picture is chopped. You just can't win