8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
The life of Emperor Pu Yi, who took the throne at age three, in 1908, before witnessing decades of cultural and political upheaval, within and without the walls of the Forbidden City.
Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying, Victor WongDrama | 100% |
Period | 30% |
History | 28% |
Biography | 17% |
Epic | 17% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region B (C untested)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
When a film more or less sweeps the Academy Awards, it's probably easy to think everyone associated with the film, perhaps especially the co-writer and director who took home two of those aforementioned Oscars, are firmly ensconced in the filmmaking hierarchy of icons for all time. And while that may well have been true of Bernardo Bertolucci after this film was released, as some of the bounteous supplements Arrow Video has aggregated for this impressive new set make clear, in an industry where you're only as hot as your most recent success, Bertolucci was in relatively dire straits when The Last Emperor was in its formative stages. Despite having effected a "hat trick plus one" fairly early in his career with The Conformist, The Spider's Stratagem , Last Tango in Paris and 1900, Bertolucci had stumbled at least somewhat with the two films which immediately preceded The Last Emperor, Luna and Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man. That general feeling of entropy, combined with a seriously risky gambit of getting the Chinese Communist Party to agree to a production utilizing the Forbidden City for a location shoot, probably led many to believe that Bertolucci had bitten off more than he could possibly chew, and there were probably some "industry vultures" simply waiting for the carrion of The Last Emperor to be scattered across the landscape for them to feast on. Of course, instead of being the unmitigated disaster some were predicting or perhaps even hoping, The Last Emperor turned out to be an unabashed triumph for everyone involved, and it remains one of the most effective so-called "historical epics" if its or frankly probably any generation.
The Last Emperor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration (Arrow includes the same booklet in its separate 1080 and 4K UHD releases of this film, hence the verbiage about HDR and Dolby Vision):
The Last Emperor has been exclusively restored by Turbine in partnership with Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 [sic] with stereo and 5.1 sound.To cut to the chase, this is a hugely impressive looking presentation that should easily please the film's legion of fans, with an often sumptuously suffused palette that is impressive virtually from the get go with a glut of reds, greens, purples and yellows in the background of the credits sequence. Reds in particular pop amazingly well throughout the presentation. The prison material is deliberately cooler looking, with a blue grading that reinforces a kind of wintry, bleak ambience. Detail levels are typically excellent throughout the presentation, with close-ups in particular offering at times ravishing looks at the fabrics on costumes and props. Other elements like grizzled, wrinkled elderly faces also offer superb fine detail levels a lot of the time. There are occasional passing rough looking moments that I have noticed in previous home video incarnations of this title, which leads me to believe they're "baked in". While grain can vary at times, for the most part it's very nicely tightly resolved.
The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K at Technicolor Rome. The film was graded in standard dynamic range, HDR10 and Dolby Vision by Jan Frederik Kuhn & Benjamin Albrecht at LSP Medien, Uelzen. The restoration was supervised by Christian Bartsch, Turbine.Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. Image stability and flicker were also improved.
The film's original framing was maintained using reference materials supplied by Schedule 2, London. Instances of visible debris or hairs at the edge of the frame were considered part of the original photography and were left unaltered during the restoration process.
The original stereo soundtrack was remastered from the magnetic reels. The 5.1 mix was provided by StudioCanal.
The Last Emperor features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options. The surround track is quite spacious at times, especially in some of the outdoor material, though even interior scenes in the Forbidden City's immense palace can reveal clear engagement of the side and rear channels. Some of the prison footage also has really nicely immersive effects that provide a bed of sonic activity. The fantastically wide ranging score also resides comfortably in the surround channels and adds a good deal of energy (at times percussive) to the sound design. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
Disc One
- Bernardo Bertolucci (HD; 8:18)
- John Lone (HD; 8:33)
- Joan Chen (HD; 9:13)
The Last Emperor may well be a paradigm of "truth is stranger than fiction", even if this film may vary at times from the actual historical record. One of the most gorgeous films of its era also has some unusual emotional impact, something that's not always the case with what can be overblown historical epics. Arrow provides a release with solid technical merits and excellent supplements. Highly recommended.
1987
Limited Edition | + Extended cut in BD
1987
Special Edition | Theatrical Cut
1987
Special Edition | Theatrical Cut
1987
2011
The Argentine
2008
2019
Diamond Jubilee Edition
2006
1992
Guerrilla
2008
Collector's Edition | Sony Collector's Edition #2
1957
Premium Collection
1975
25th Anniversary Edition
1993
Two-Disc Collector's Edition
2010
2006
2010
Limited Edition
1982
Triple Play
2011
1955
1971
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1976
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1984
2023