The Last Emperor ***** (1987, John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole) – Classic Movie Review 2619

Co-writer/director Bernardo Bertolucci’s magnificent 1987 movie The Last Emperor about the last imperial ruler of China was a much-deserved world-wide triumph for him and his brave and ambitious British producer, Jeremy Thomas. The Last Emperor won nine Oscars, and yet still star Peter O’Toole was overlooked and neglected. He went to his grave Oscarless, after eight nominations. Bertolucci won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (with Mark Peploe).

The screenplay carves out a remarkably lucid panorama of 60 years of China’s history, as seen through the eyes of Pi Yu (John Lone), who is taken away to be the Qing emperor at the age of three. Although all-powerful, he is ironically a total prisoner until stripped of his power, content at last as a gardener in Mao’s China.

John Lone plays Pi Yu.

Lone holds the centre firm and strong in a well-calculated, cool but charismatic performance as Pi Yu. And there’s plenty for O’Toole to do, ideally cast as his English tutor, Reginald Johnston, in a warm piece of acting that nicely complements Lone’s. While the equally remarkable Joan Chen complements them both as Empress Wan Jung.

Joan Chen and Tao Wu in The Last Emperor (1987).

The film works brilliantly as an upmarket intelligent, thinking-person’s David Lean-style epic, with a few extra adult trimmings, such as the love triangle Pi Yu is involved in. But the main triumph is visual – it is gorgeously filmed by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro where it happened, in the Forbidden City.

Yes, there were nine Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director (Bertolucci), Best Adapted Screenplay (Bertolucci, Mark Peploe), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Ferdinando Scarfiotti, Bruno Cesari Osvaldo Desideri), Best Film Editing (Gabriella Cristiani), Best Costume Design (James Acheson), Best Original Score (Ryûichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Cong Su) and Best Sound (Bill Rowe, Ivan Sharrock).

It won every award it was nominated for, but there were no nominations for any of the actors. So, from the Academy’s point of view, it had to be viewed purely as a technical triumph. That is a shame, and a bit blinkered.

There were also three Bafta awards, including Best Film, and four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama. At least Lone did swing a Best Actor nomination at the Golden Globes.

The majestic 2003 Director’s Cut runs 219 minutes adds magnificent footage and solves the slight pacing and clarity problems of the original. British TV screens a dishonest, decorous version specially prepared by Bertolucci that is not cut but panned and scanned by him.

Also in the cast are Ying Ruocheng, Victor Wong, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dennis Dun, Maggie Han, Ric Young, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Vivian Wu [Wu Jun Mei] and Tao Wu.

The Last Emperor runs 163 minutes, is released by Columbia, is written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci, is shot by Vittorio Storaro, is produced by Jeremy Thomas, is scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne and Cong Su, and designed by Ferdinando Scarfiotti and Bruno Cesari.

O’Toole died on December 14 2013, aged 81. Best remembered for Lawrence of Arabia, Becket, The Lion in Winter and The Last Emperor, he held the unenviable record of being the actor with the most Oscar nominations without any wins (eight). This beat his old Sixties drinking buddy Richard Burton by one nomination.

He received an honorary Oscar in 2003. He won four Golden Globes and an Emmy. ‘I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star!’ he said.

RIP great film-maker Bernardo Bertolucci, who died of cancer on 26 November 2018, aged 77, in Rome. He is best remembered for The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist, The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers.

Ryuichi Sakamoto [Sakamoto Ryūichi], keyboardist for the pioneering Yellow Magic Orchestra and Oscar-winning composer of The Last Emperor, died at the age of 71 on March 28, 2023 after a battle with cancer.

The Last Emperor (1987) won him the Academy Award for Best Original Score, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, and Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for his score for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983). His score for The Sheltering Sky (1990) won him his second Golden Globe Award, and his score for Little Buddha (1993) received another Grammy Award nomination. His score for The Revenant (2015) was nominated for the Golden Globe and BAFTA.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,619

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