Rating: 
Summary: One of the best movies ever is made even better
Review: With the advent of DVDs, many films are being issued in an expanded edition or director's cut. At times a great movie is not made any better with the added footage (e.g. Amadeus). At other times incredible movies are greatly improved with added footage that fleshes out story lines and character development (e.g. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring; The Last Emperor).For those of you who are unaware, this movie chronicles the true life story of Pu Yi (spelling?), who was made emperor of China at the age of 3. It is a fascinating chronicle of how his personal life as emperor is intertwined with the historical changes going on around him. It is bittersweet to see how the "lord of ten thousand years" is prevented from leaving the Forbidden City. Ultimately he is made a puppet emperor under Japanese rule, and eventually becomes an ordinary peasant under Communist China. The visuals are some of the most mesmerising ever filmed, the music is impeccable. Althought it won nine Acamedy Awards, it is sad that none of the actors or actresses were even nominated. As someone with scant knowledge of Chinese history, I found the film to be edifiying and educational as well. My biggest complaint, sadly, is about the physical product of the DVD itself. In early moments of the film the bright golden throne seems to shimmer far too much. This happened later in the film as well. I hope someone at the studio has noticed this and makes an improved copy. However, please do not let this hold you back from buying this film on DVD. I for one am glad that I did!
Rating:
Summary: This movie IS SPECTACULAR - DVD does not do it justice
Review: This top notch movie is a must have - great drama and action: life, love, death, power, betrayal, redemption, renewal - based on true events. The movie itself deserves much more than 5 stars - but this DVD release deserves 3 stars. I agree with a previous reviewer (cainz) - the DVD should definitely be redone - and, ideally, should also have a superbit version to really bring out the full richness of the superb brillance of colors and sounds. Till then, I would not pass this release up especially if you have not seen it before.
Rating: 
Summary: The Forbidden City - a theatre without an audience...
Review: ...a prison within a prison...an emperor imprisoned within the walls of a puppet state only to serve the interests of those who made him an emperor...and when Pu Yi is out of the chinese prison after having served a ten year correction sentence, he sees his former prison warden forced to march in a humiliating parade of denunciation organized by young chinese cultural revolutionaries who are as much under the spell of an illusion as the former emperor was before: the vicious circle is complete - the entire world is a prison, and there's enough room for you too, just wait for your turn: this seems to be one of the main ideas of this epic movie. Bertoluci's "The last emperor" is a magnificient film of epic proportions. While I was watching this truly beautiful work many years ago I couldn't help thinking about what made this film both a commercial and critical success comparing to his former work "Novecento", a more commercial than critical fiasco, and thinking what went wrong with his previous work. Maybe with the emperor Bertoluci had much less ambitions as far as the interpretation of the history of a country and of its politics is concerned, or maybe he didn't set the standarts as high as he did before the release of "Novecento", or maybe because here he doesn't venture onto political or poor class preachifying. I don't know whether one can consider "The last emperor" to be a typical Bernardo Bertoluci movie or not. You certainly find his typical storytelling, the famous Bertoluci intimacy and closeups. But you also find some strange, bizarre acts, typical of Bertoluci's movies characters, like the servants checking the little emperor's excrements, the emperor hurling his pet mouse at the doors which keep him imprisoned, the emperess eating orchid blooms at a state reception, the eunuchs carrying their testicles in phials out into the courtyard. Having said that, I think the great Bernardo should consider himself very lucky to have worked in this and numerous other films with Vittorio Storaro, one of the best in his domain - remember some truly great scenes, like the beggars outside the Forbidden City's gates, the chanting monks, the city's interiors almost impenetrable in darkness, the crimson blossom of blood in the water filled sink where Pu Yi cuts his wrists in an attempt to put an end to his life, the almost puritanical whites of the communist prison, and many, many other beautiful scenes. All in all a great movie, maybe too bloodless to be an epic work, but surely beautiful enough to be called a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing. A great picture for all times.
Review: This is one fantastic movie. The take on Pu Yi's life is captivating, and the portrayal of the deteriorating Chinese empire is a masterpiece. I really enjoyed the first part of the movie, as he learns his way through the imperial palace, with his 2 wives. The latter modern part sort of bored me off, but that's only because I find no interest in it. What's funny is how he disappeared in the end. Kind of creepy, but wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: A film of visual beauty and great sadness
Review: I think this is a beautiful film of a tragic and pathetic story. It begins with a baby being ripped from his mother and brought to the palace for cruel political reasons. He is raised as the Emperor of China, but is in reality a prisoner of those who benefit from the illusion and structure of that power the boy never gets to wield. Pu Yi's rumored non-traditional sexual development is handled delicately in the movie and is part of his pathetic character development. Including his trying to pass off his wife's pregnancy from his driver as his to the Japanese, when they are already well aware and murder the baby when it is born and take the wife away to finish her destruction through opium. The story told as a series of scenes reflected upon as Pu Yi goes through his re-education in a communist prison camp. If I have one criticism of the film, it is that it is far too soft on the horrors of Mao's regime. It was no less corrupt than what went before and was more thoroughly vicious. What it did offer was a more consistent order. It was an order of terror and misery, but it was order. John Lone is fabulous as Pu Yi as was Joan Chen as Wan Jung. Peter O'Toole is very fine as the English bachelor tutor, Reginald Johnston. Ruocheng Ying gives my personally favorite performance as the man in charge of the detention center and therefore in charge of re-educating the Emperor. When Pu Yi sees him later as a denounced prisoner of the insane children's brigades, I think it is a very touching scene. I wish we would see more of Victor Wong. Here he plays Pu Yi's valet and his conflict of still being the Emperor's servant and not being his servant in prison is one of the many treasures in this movie. He is a very fine actor. There is much more to see in this movie and the DVD has done us the favor of giving us an hour of additional footage that makes this story even richer. For me, the length of the movie adds to its beauty and emotional impact. It is a tragedy that takes time to develop and express its sorrow. The movie is visually beautiful and has many images that will stay in your memory.
Rating:
Summary: Great experience
Review: "The Last Emporer" is a movie that the audience must listen closely to understand the events. This nine-time Oscar winning movie expresses the many details through dialogue rather than through action. This digs deeper into the characters' every emotion through every turmoil, a rarity in the film industry. Pu-Yi's life, death, and turbulances are portrayed wonderfully, forcing the audience to sorrow him. Every actor gives their character the heart and soul necessary. The palace was elaboratedy recreated resembling the real area from the early 1900's. The cast and crews' research of this Chinese/Japanese era proved useful. Not only is it perfect, but it forces the audience to feel the era. The audience may not understand every detail in the first viewing, but it proves worth the time once watched several times.
Rating: 
Summary: Only good version of this great movie
Review: The quality of the taped version of the director's cut of this great movie is just as bad as the dvd version - washed out colors and all the faults mentioned in other reviews. The original taped version (non-director's cut) is watchable (rich colors, etc.). The only problem with that version is that it only comes in full screen.
Rating: 
Summary: Very poor picture quality
Review: The transfer is so poor, the picture so dark -- how disappointing! This is DVD? What happened?
Rating:
Summary: Director's Cut?
Review: There was a time when to cut something meant to make it shorter, but this film is longer than what I remember. Still, it's a very good film (though China made a mini-series claiming that their version was more accurate). Yet, this film does not shy away from the fact that Henry Pu-Yi (as the Emperor chose to be known), aided and abetted the Japanese in their occupation of China. If you like long but lush period pieces, then this is what you need to see.
Rating:
Summary: The worst DVD movie I ever seen, I mean technically.
Review: I don't know how good the story is as I cannot concentrate on movie. This DVD's video and audio quality is TERRIBLE, I would give it 0 star for its quality. Fortunately I rent it, not buy it. The acadamy winner totally ruined by studio who released it.
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