听 User Rating 
Contains moderate violence and sex
Do we really need a longer version of The Last Emperor? Bernardo Bertolucci thinks we do, bolstering his Oscar-grabbing opus with an hour of previously excised footage. You could argue that the tale of Pu Yi, the "son of heaven" who began his life as ruler of half the world's population and ended it as a lowly gardener in Peking, merits such a hefty chunk of celluloid. But bigger does not necessarily mean better in a film that's become more of an endurance test than a cinematic spectacle.
Shot almost entirely on location in China in 1986, Emperor was the first feature to be allowed to film in Beijing's sprawling Forbidden City. And we get to see even more of it this time around, with much of the new material focusing on Pu Yi's childhood, his relationship with his brother, and the workings of his vast palace-cum-prison.
Subplots involving his mother, wet-nurse and eunuch courtiers flesh out the story and create a firmer foundation for the tumultuous upheavals that follow. And though there is little more of him than there was before, Peter O'Toole remains a warm, immensely charismatic presence as the Emperor's avuncular tutor.
"PHOTOGRAPHY IS STILL STUNNING"
The problems come with the intercutting of Pu Yi's opulent past with his grim present as a political prisoner in the People's Republic. Where the latter was originally just a framing device to introduce flashbacks, it now takes on a life of its own that is hardly conducive to a nippy narrative. Watching John Lone's deposed ruler being bullied for the umpteenth time by Ric Young's shrieking interrogator, you quickly see why these scenes were ditched.
Vittorio Storaro's photography is still stunning, while Joan Chen breaks the heart as Lone's opium-addict wife. But at three-and-a-half sluggish hours, this is one history lesson you can't wait to end.
I think it is good
