The Last Emperor - Director's Cut

Movie / Show Details

Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 biographical drama follows Pu Yi, China’s last emperor, from his childhood in the Forbidden City through the collapse of the imperial system. Taken from his mother at age three, Pu Yi becomes a pampered prisoner within the palace walls, tutored by an English gentleman and married to a woman of similar standing, while the world outside transforms into a modern republic. After his expulsion from this isolated world, he experiences life as a playboy, a pawn of Japanese occupiers, and a subject of China’s cultural revolution, ultimately becoming an ordinary peasant worker in the People’s Republic.

This is the director’s cut on a single DVD from Columbia Pictures, running 163 minutes longer than the theatrical release and rated PG-13. John Lone portrays the adult Pu Yi in this expanded version, which adds scenes that deepen the audience’s understanding of the emperor’s loss of agency and privilege. Bertolucci’s full vision of this remarkable historical figure is yours to own on physical media.