Review of The Last Emperor (1987) by Reagan0 — 11 Oct 2015

This is my favorite movie ever. It took me a while to wrap my head around it but it has everything.

I don't even know if I can go into it all but I'll try. It's one of the best historical dramas because it's profoundly truthful and accurate. Because of that I feel for every moment the film focuses on. It all surrounds a single character - Puyi, the last emperor of China, as he grows up. Reigning over his own ancient world as a teenager, utterly confused as a young adult as to why he no longer has it, going through a magnanimous crisis as a middle-aged man, and finally coming to peace with reality as an elderly man. The ending of the movie is so beautifully symbolic and captivating of China that I dare not spoil it.

It has my favorite film scorer in the world, Ryuichi Sakamoto, at his very finest work. It is a historic film in that it's the first western film to EVER film inside the Forbidden City, and it is done with such spectacle. You believe that complex is at least 5x bigger than it probably is. It explores every corridor.

Truthfully, every single person in the world needs to see this film. It is the most honest drama I have seen. It portrays perhaps the most difficult topic in the entire world - China in the 20th century. Chinese people refer to it often as "the Century of Shame", and that is what it is. Constant political turmoil and lies define the entire nation, and the reason they are developing out of it now is because of an evil dictatorship at the helm, the Communist Party.

This film takes no **** when dealing with the Communist Party of China. It doesn't part their definition to make their country or their government look better. It portrays them exactly how they are – blind, naive, over-powerful and murderous, and only to be reasoned with because they "won the war", even though they really didn't as much as the much cleaner (though certainly not flawless) Nationalist government did. The Chinese government is very corrupt and loves spreading that corruption to other places for primitive causes. But political rant over, I don't want to tarnish the ending of this review too much.

One thing I forgot to mention - the entire story of Puyi losing power at a young age? That's a metaphor for modern life. It is what everyone seems to live like and what everyone aspires to live like in their late age. You always lose grip of your life as a teenager. You always lose the fundamentals that you had as a child in your own adult ego. Your life always slips away from your control at some point, and it takes forever to get back. You always hope that you get it back. Sometimes it doesn't even. When it does it is beautiful like this film.

TL, DR? Beautifully accurate, heartbreakingly dramatic, and one of the quintessential films you should see before you turn 20. My favorite in the world.