The Last Emperor begins in 1950, with the return to China of Emperor Pu Yi (John Lone) as a war criminal. Thereafter the movie jumps, somewhat awkwardly, forward and back as it attempts to account for more than 50 years of the emperor’s life. Scenes recall many things, including the boy’s acclamation as emperor, his pampered childhood, and the arrival of his tutor, Reginald Johnston (played by Peter O’Toole), in 1919.Bertolucci was given access to some magnificent locations within the Forbidden City and this certainly makes for some stunning visuals throughout the film. At times, hundreds of extras fill the screen and the costumes, props and historical references appear authentic. There is a scene early in the film when the young Pu Yi, attended by his minders and servants as he sits on the Throne, grows restless. He gets up and runs toward the door of the throne room where a vast, billowing curtain obstructs the view. When the curtain is blown aside we see thousands of the emperor’s minions, traditionally costumed, lined up, all of them kneeling and bowing to the boy.
However, for a film that clearly went out of its way to be as accurate as possible, the idea of Chinese people speaking English badly in Chinese accents struck me as quite ridiculous. Near the start of the film, when someone said ‘imwedwetwy’ instead of ‘immediately’, I thought I was watching something from Team America: World Police (2004). An English-spoken film about non-English-speaking people is something that almost always annoys me and it is often not to the film's benefit. Indeed, I found that the film’s acting ranged from average to downright awkward at times – even O’Toole delivers a rather poor performance.
Whilst the power and scope of The Last Emperor are undeniable, I found most of what we see to be incredibly ordinary and the 160 minute-long film certainly drags at times. This dourness leads to me to conclude that one of the film’s most positive features is in the opening scenes: the three year old Pu Yi, (Richard Vuu) is very cute.
