Movie Review: The Last Emperor

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1987

Main characters:
Pu Yi - the last emperor,  played by 4 actors, covering the stages of his childhood.
Pu Yi's wife in an arranged marriage
Pu Yi's second consort
Pu Yi's British tutor, Reginald Johnston - played by Peter O'Toole of Lawrence of Arabia fame.

I don't really have time to give this a thorough review.  Even as I write this I'm pretty exhausted, but this must be done!  Sorry I don't read anyone else's blog, or any of my usual web sites, until I can catch up. I don't have access to anything at work, which if you think about it, is a good thing, because work is for work anyway.

This movie covered the life of the last emperor of China.  The movie opens up as a 30-40 something person is a prisoner and is trying to kill himself.  Then we go back to a young boy who is crowned emperor at the age of 3.  He is immediately given authority and told that he can get anything he wants.  So he's a spoiled person, and is shocked to find out that outside the walls of the Forbidden City, there is actually someone else ruling, the President of the Republic.  Meanwhile, Pu Yi is a prison of the Forbidden City and is not allowed to leave.  Just for tradition, I guess, or for political reasons..I wasn't clear on that.

Since the "West" is more and more important, he gets a British tutor and is exposed more to the outside world, and has to get spectacles. He reforms the Forbidden City by expelling the thousands of eunuchs. 

Anyway, the world wars go on, and the Russians and Japanese invade China, and Pu Yi is finally expelled from the Forbidden City. And his wives have a difficult time with being exposed to other ideas and the loss of Pu Yi's power, and are unhappy, especially the second wife at first.

I don't really feel like writing the entire plot, so it's review time now.

I thought it had good use of color and costumes - those also won awards.  The story was long but interesting. Courtney really liked it and wanted it to keep going. 

I think it's just amazing that China went through such drastic changes in a short time.  The old system of emperor was torn down, and it went to a Republic, and then to Communism.  So of course it was interesting to follow said emperor.