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Sabrina The directors version has more details to build up the deep emotion. Especially after the Emperor claimed the throne of Manchu Guo. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/21/23 Full Review Alain E I understand it won an Oscar and more, but I found it boring and continued to watch it to see where it was going. Thankfully, the end was quite good. Some of the flashbacks were a little confusing. Acting and cinematography is good. I don’t see how non Asians will want to follow a feature for almost three hours about events that we have no knowledge of. I happen to have a Chinese American son in law, so he will be my sample of one at the next family reunion. In terms of Bertolucci’s output I prefer for historical drama 1900. In other context The Conformist and The Last Tango. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/12/25 Full Review Nik F Visually breathtaking film with amazing costume designs. It was very touching, particularly the way the story comes full circle in the end. What a tumultuous life! My only complaint is that it’s a very long film, and I have to admit it was a bit slow in the middle. But definitely worth watching. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/23/25 Full Review Jacob B Bertolucci’s masterpiece! If you can find the unedited directors cut available on the Criterion Channel, settle back and watch one of the last truly great epic’s ever made. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/04/25 Full Review Jonathan K It's wild that this is actually true, it's quite the epic. It's hard to sympathize with the main character, however, in the way they tell it, even though they supposedly cast him in a slightly more favorable light than history records. The score is an interesting choice too for the setting of the film, it's very synthy and odd/eerie. Ryuichi Sakamoto is amazing, I just think it's a weird fit for the era of the story. There is some interesting political commentary happening, and the fact that China permitted this to be filmed and told, tells you that they likely had some say in it. The communist party red guard at the end provided an interesting footnote to the contrast of ruling systems. Overall, it's a really good film, as evidenced by its Oscar's sweep that year. Yet with its poetic (and dated storytelling) style, it ends up feeling kind of slow and dragging toward the back third, rendering it a little bit of a chore to get through. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/01/24 Full Review Craig B Very slow, very boring, sorry critics, you got this one wrong. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 06/11/24 Full Review Read all reviews

The Last Emperor

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