Originally released in 1987 shorn of a full hour of footage, this fascinating but ultimately passive pageant -- in keeping with its protagonist, Aisin-Gioro "Henry" Pu Yi, tha last emperor of China and a man more acted upon than active -- contains some of Italian director Bernardo
Bertolucci's most sumptuous visuals. This grand and powerful biography begins in 1908 when, at the age of three, Pu Yi was named emperor of China and follows him through a tumultuous life inextricably intertwined with the history of modern-day China, one that that ended with the once-coddled
emperor working quietly as a gardener at Peking's Botanical Gardens. The restored version of the f...
Released:
1987
Rated:
PG-13
Length:
219 mins