Images - The Last Emperor

<BODY bgcolor="#CCCC99"> <font size="2"><p>Movie Review <font size="4"><br>The Last Emperor</font> <br>by David Ng</font> <font size=3 face="Book Antiqua,Century Schoolbook,Times New Roman"> <p><font size="6" color="#FF9900"><b>T</b></font>he original version of <i>The Last Emperor</i> has a running time of two and a half hours, and in that time, the main character, Pu Yi, China's final monarch, never emerges as a complete human being. Like an existential anti-hero, Pu Yi lacks a series of personality definitions. He is an open-ended character, like Meursault in Albert Camus' <i>L'Etranger</i>, who confounds any attempt to pin him down. Now, eleven years after the original, director Bernardo Bertolucci has released <i>The Last Emperor: Original Director's Cut</i>. It is a blissful (and ass-numbing) four hours long, with intermission. The new footage fleshes out minor characters and adds a few more vistas to its already plump visual cornucopia. But it doesn't offer anymore insight into the last emperor himself. In a film marked by doors opening and closing, Bertolucci keeps the door to Pu Yi resolutely shut. <p><a href="lastemperor-nf.htm">Go to the review</a></font> </body>