The Last Emperor

(Note: This review refers to the Blu-ray version of the DVD.)

Isn't this what Blu-ray was made for? Bernardo Bertolucci's magnificent epic tells the dramatic story of Pu Yi (John Lone), the last Chinese emperor. Crowned at age 3, he's a prisoner of his own palace, a puppet ruler manipulated by both the Western powers and the occupying Chinese, and finally a project for re-education by the communist regime. Pu Yi is a man buffeted by history, a figurehead whose power ends at the walls of the Forbidden City. Bertolucci's production is sweeping and lavish – this was the first foreign production granted access to film within the walls of the Forbidden City – and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro uses color like a painter on an epic canvas. At the center of the spectacle, however, is the story of a boy raised to believe in his own divinity and a man who learns to become a simple human being against the backdrop of China's volatile history. Winner of nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Oscars for director Bertolucci, the screenplay adaptation, and Storaro's cinematography.

The director-approved Blu-ray disc features the 165-minute theatrical release of the film preferred by Bertolucci (the 218-minute TV version is available on Criterion's standard DVD) and all the supplements from Criterion's earlier release: commentary by Bertolucci, screenwriter Mark Peploe, producer Jeremy Thomas, and composer/actor Ryuichi Sakamoto (all recorded separately and edited together in a dense, meaty track that builds on the accumulation of observations and insights); and numerous documentaries, featurettes and interviews, all on a single disc. The thin booklet, however, only features one essay (the DVD release features a much more substantial booklet).