The Last Emperor

7/17/2023

This is a glorious film to watch on a big screen. It depicts the end of empire and the birth of new ones - and it does it in a spectacularly colourful and stylish fashion. The death of the Empress Dowager sees the toddler Pu Yi ascend the Dragon Throne of China, and live amidst concubines and eunuchs in the Forbidden City. He grows up believing his is a divine right to rule, and it is only upon the arrival of his tutor RJ (Peter O'Toole) and his procurement of spectacles that his eyes begin to be opened to the reality that his kingdom is entirely enclosed within a wall of golden yellow tiles. When this idyll is disrupted by warring events outside, the Emperor (now John Lone) sone finds himself a playboy, married to an opium addict (Joan Chen) and a useful puppet of the manipulative Japanes