Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
Bertolucci's epic biography of Pu Yi is a visually staggering achievement — the unprecedented access to the Forbidden City and the sumptuous, layered cinematography by Vittorio Storaro earned it deserved Oscars. The plot spans an extraordinary arc of Chinese history told through one man's rise and fall, giving it genuine sweep and emotional resonance. Novelty is very high: no film before or since has captured this particular collision of imperial China, Japanese occupation, and Maoist re-education with such scale and intimacy. Acting is competent and committed but not uniformly exceptional across the ensemble. The ending, while thematically fitting in its quiet circularity, is somewhat subdued and deflates slightly rather than landing with full force.