The Last Emperor Blu Ray Review
June 20, 2009
It’s was little strange for western director to make a biographical film based on the last emperor of China. Regardless, Bernardo Bertolucci, an Italian, created a master piece in The Last Emperor. Released in 1987, the film garnered nine Oscar nominations and won all nine Oscars including the best picture award.
The movie is told in combination of flash backs and flash forwards. The movie deals with the life of the last emperor of China, Pu Yi. Pu Yi, played by John Lone, assumes the Dragon Throne at the age of three. From there, he sees the Japanese invasion as well as the Communist revolution. He goes from the all powerful emperor to a puppet emperor to a prisoner all in one life time. The movie doesn’t sugar coat or sway you any direction. It remains historically correct for most of the movie. Even toward the end of the movie, you feel neither good nor bad about the outcome.
The custom and location of a given movie rarely commands important role in modern movies except for period pieces. The Last Emperor employs some of the most beautiful locations and costumes in the history of cinema. The true location as well as the many extras truly makes the film extra special. The running time may distract some viewers as it tends to meander through on some parts. It was really remarkable to see such powerful figure fall from the throne all the way to the prison. This is a very good movie and everyone should invest 2 hours watching it.
What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.
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The Last Emperor - (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] List Price: Sale Price: $23.49 You save: $16.46 (41%) Average Rating: 
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Don’t waste your money or support this truly below average quality release by Criterion
This is one of the worst Blu-Ray releases I have seen. There is so much grain in 98% of the movie that Criterion should be disgusted with their blatant opportunism.
I guess I won’t be buying any of Criterion’s Blu-Ray releases in the future until I see a Blu-Ray review confirming whether or not Criterion chose to release a DVD version on Blu-Ray or actually mastered a new version from the original film itself.
Don’t waste your money on this garbage release!! Especially if you already own the DVD version which actually has less grain/noise. The small amount of added details in the occasional close up scenes do not even come close to making up for the distraction caused by the sheer volume of grain/noise. If you have a decent video setup at all, you will find yourself constantly distracted by the noise particles all over your screen.
Shame Criterion! Shame! You owe everyone who bought this a full refund or a rerelease. Even the original Blu-Ray releases of Stargate and 5th Element weren’t as annoying, because at least they had the excuse of inadequate time to get the early Blu-Ray releases out, and after the fact they allowed us to send in our initial release versions for re-mastered copies of the films after the fact. Criterion has no excuse, they need to rerelease this properly and give everyone who bought a copy a chance to send it in for an exchange…
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Blu-ray eye candy
This is a review for the 164 minute version of the movie that is contained on the Blu-ray disc. The longer version on the DVD, that many here have commented on, was not a director’s cut but was an edit that was shown as a mini series on Italian television.
The Blu-ray transfer of this film is outstanding, with rich colors, strong detail and with clear and vivid audio. Epic in scope and beautifully filmed by Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Reds, One from the Heart & many others),
The Last Emperor reminds me why I love films. The movie has strong performances, interesting locations, lavish costumes and beautiful art direction. This film is a reminder that it used to be possible to make visually rich productions without CGI.
The Blu-ray disc contains hours of extra content including interviews with the director Bertolucci, composer David Byrne, editor Gabriella Cristiana, costume designer James Acheson, and art director Gianni Silvestri. There is also an interesting Interview with historian Ian Buruma that fills in many of the historical details of the events depicted in the film. Criterion did a fantastic job with this Blu-ray release. Highly recommended.
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Compare DVD to Blu-Ray
I will not purchase the Blu-Ray version as I like the extended cut on DVD. It is sad when a company downgrades a movie from DVD to Blu-Ray. I was so pleased when The Kingdom of Heaven came out on Blu-Ray. I was longer and filled in all the missing parts missing in the original DVD. This is what Blu-Ray is to me. Better reproduction. More features. And if possible the addition of deleted or missing parts from the DVD.
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Great Movie
This is one of the best movies that I have in my collection. The Blu Ray version is excellant. The colors are so vibrant and the sound is great. It is the story of the last emperor of China, Pu Yi. It is well worth the money and the time to watch.
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Defective Criterion Blu-Ray Soundtrack
Sadly, Criterion’s Blu-Ray edition of THE LAST EMPEROR has a quality control problem severe enough to note here. The DTS surround track has been incorrectly mastered in monaural for the first couple of hours into the picture. Hopefully Criterion will correct the problem on subsequent prints, otherwise their standard dvd version is the one to own for now.
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Excellent film, disappointing HD quality
The film is an excellent story and well acted. I was disappointed in the quality of the high def. It did not have the crispness or realism I have seen in other Blu-ray DVDs or even over cable. Recording is not poor, just not what I consider good high def.
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Leading movie
Example of movie of rare beauty thanks also to the evocative soundtrack.Criterion has not succeeded in eliminating the grain from some scenes, still this is a high rate of a BD.
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Not great
Video quality wasn’t the worst or best I have seen, movie is rather boring. Overall I would not recomend this at all.
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Criterion’s Blu-ray of The Last Emperor dazzles the senses
Criterion has done it again. Its blu-ray of The Last Emperor finally does justice to one of the few great films produced since the movie business went downhill in the 1980s, and is now giving us such sickening garbage as Hostel and Saw. The only caveat – Criterion may want to relook its packaging for Blu-ray discs; it’s a big step down from the gorgeous package it delivered for the earlier DVD release of The Last Emperor – it has become so obvious just how mediocre and obsolete that the DVD format is now that we have Blu-ray. Here’s hoping Criterion re-releases The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and The Magnificent Obsession on Blu-ray – and quickly!!
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Criterion comes up short on “Emperor”
I recently purchased this edition of “The Last Emperor” and was disappointed. Disappointed not in the brilliant visual presentation in Blu-ray but in the audio design!! On the jacket it says that it is Stereo surround but when I listen, it’s basically monaural sound with all of it emanating from the center, not left or right or rear surrounds, but dead center. Also the aspect ratio is 2:00 and it’s stated that it’s from a 35mm source well that is a surprise!! Although the picture is an improvement over the grainyness of the tape, DVD and laser disc versions of this film–why couldn’t this renowned company acquire a 70mm print since it’s ratio is 2:00!? I almost feel like writing Criterion and addressing this problem. It doesn’t bug me that this is the theatrical rather than the longer Director’s cut that was released to Italian TV since I’ve already seen this version on a Japanese laser disc–it’s the audio design that needs to be addressed!! So 4 stars for the visuals, but only 1 for the audio (the surround doesn’t kick in until the last 45 minutes of this film!!).
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Criterion should be ashamed to release this.
For someone who grew up worshipping at the altar of Criterion, receiving this flimsy, chintzy digipack of one of history’s most sumptuous films is a huge disappointment. It is quite simply of godawful design both functionally and aesthetically. The still image they chose for the cover graphic is both boring and pretentious. Beth Dorfsman…where are you?
How the mighty have fallen. I remember the days when Criterion Laserdiscs were the ultimate home video indulgence. Their design was nearly always leagues above the competition, as was their commitment to providing outstanding liner notes, superior transfers — the whole experience. If you would have shown me this pathetic little piece of cardboard back in 1990 I would have been utterly flabbergasted. Although Criterion did not release an LD of The Last Emperor, we all owned gorgeous Japanese imports with glossy black gatefold jackets, one of which displayed an entire diagram of the Forbidden City. I understand that the very small format of Blu-Ray provides some challenges, but Criterion has delivered outstanding presentations on recent releases such as “If…” “Jigoku” and many others.
I also think it is a cynical, telling move that they did not include the Director’s Cut on this release. It is quite simply so you will not flood the market with the Standard-Def version and they can do a shameless double-dip. And this is from the guys who are so concerned with you the viewer, right?
Alas, the transfer also does not look particularly stellar. There is of course higher resolution but this soft image is certainly not a show-off title in your collection. Honestly, I watched the film on Laserdisc a couple of years ago and I enjoyed it every bit as much then if not more. This is a big slide downhill for a company which was once the touchstone of quality.
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Previous reviews incorrect.
The shorter version of the film is the director’s preferred version of the film. The longer version was a version he had cut for television distribution, and while its a shame that the extended version will not be included, rest assured that the shorter version is the director’s cut of the film.
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