On the 28th day in my 34 Days of Oscar, I saw the movie "The Last Emperor". This film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, winning all of them. It won Best Picture, Best Director (Bernardo Bertolucci), Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Sound. It is only 1 of 2 films in the past 50 years to win Best Picture and sweep all the other categories it was nominated in too, the other being the final "Lord of the Rings" movie in 2004."The Last Emperor" is a biopic on the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. It is based on Puyi's own autobiography. It is told, mostly in flashbacks, as an adult Puyi sits in prison after World War II. At the age of 3,
Puyi is anointed Emperor of China and is taken from his mother and told that his new home is the Forbidden City and he can never leave it. When Puyi gets older, he is brought a new tutor R.J. (Peter O'Toole). It is R.J.'s western influence that begins to convince Puyi that life in the Forbidden City needs to change and against the wishes of his council, Puyi begins a series of reforms inside the city. At the age of 18, an adult Puyi (John Lone) and his 2 wives are expelled from the Forbidden City by a warlord who has taken control of China. Puyi and his wives are given refuge by the Japanese Embassy and eventually move to Japan for several years. Under the influence of various Japanese officials, Puyi is installed as Emperor of his homeland of Manchukuo and is 
seen as a "Puppet" ruler who really answers to Japan. It is this tie to Japan and Puyi's desire to rule again that will eventually decide his fate after WWII and will determine if he will remain in prison for the rest of his life. I was entertained by "The Last Emperor". I thought it was a little long at times, but that was necessary to detail the life of Puyi. The Academy Award winning costumes and set decorations were magnificent. There was so much attention to detail and so many different outfits from 
outlandish emperor costumes to prison garb. The Academy Award winning score really helped set the tone without being distracting but sounding authentic at the same time. The Oscar winning editing was, for a really long movie, quite efficient. The editing had to jump back and forth from present to past and back again smoothly while keeping the audience in the story. It was still a little long for my taste and there were times it was moving so slowly I looked at my watch. I completely understand why this movie won Best Picture. It was a good looking and well made epic-style film that the Academy usually goes for.
outlandish emperor costumes to prison garb. The Academy Award winning score really helped set the tone without being distracting but sounding authentic at the same time. The Oscar winning editing was, for a really long movie, quite efficient. The editing had to jump back and forth from present to past and back again smoothly while keeping the audience in the story. It was still a little long for my taste and there were times it was moving so slowly I looked at my watch. I completely understand why this movie won Best Picture. It was a good looking and well made epic-style film that the Academy usually goes for. Overall, I give "The Last Emperor" 3 out of 5 stars. It was a well 
crafted film that told a interesting story. It was about 20 minutes too long and there were segments that should have been trimmed down a bit though. As a side note, after seeing this film, I have now seen every single film that has ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I started watching every film that had won this award in July of 2003 starting with the "Broadway Melody of 1929". Sometime soon I will write a post detailing what I saw, listing what I liked and which ones I really didn't. As for "The Last Emperor" it falls in the middle of these Award winning films. It was a good film, but it wasn't one of the best.
crafted film that told a interesting story. It was about 20 minutes too long and there were segments that should have been trimmed down a bit though. As a side note, after seeing this film, I have now seen every single film that has ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I started watching every film that had won this award in July of 2003 starting with the "Broadway Melody of 1929". Sometime soon I will write a post detailing what I saw, listing what I liked and which ones I really didn't. As for "The Last Emperor" it falls in the middle of these Award winning films. It was a good film, but it wasn't one of the best.
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