The story will remain great. The copy is poor quality. I got over it because the story is so great and I don't have VHS anymore. But my VHS was a much better quality than this DVD. This beats a blank. If you just want it for sake of just having it for the record then get it. But otherwise rent it and get over it. Not collectors quality.

Bought this movie for my wife. She loves the movie... she didn't like this version. Some of the material that was left out of the teatrical version and left uncut in this one makes the movie long and even boring at times. The quality of this "import" version also leaves to be desired.

Long movie. Took me awhile to get in to it. I had recently visited China and bought this movie to see some of the sites I had seen. Great setting of the Forbidden Palace, etc. Sad story really. It took me 2 nights to watch it!!But is was pretty good.

Visually, this is a beautiful movie, and the musical score is wonderful, but overall I was disappointed. It would have been much better in Chinese with subtitles. The English dialogue sounds so phony much of the time, and the characters seem so plastic. This is an epic story, but it lacks real human emotion, perhaps because there was just too much of a story to fit into even a LONG movie. It probably should have been a trilogy, so that the characters and their experiences could have been explored in more depth. The scenes of the Forbidden City were very interesting, especially since I just got back from seeing the real thing, but otherwise I can't recommend it.

Bertolucci's film details the life of the last Emperor of China (HIM Aisin-Gioro P'u-yi, the Hsuan-t'ung Emperor b.1906-1967) who died during the "Cultural Revolution" in China. His film is superbly balanced between the tragedy of the last Emperor against the backdrop of the upheavals of the 20th century in China. It was filmed on location in the Forbidden City in Peking, and Bertolucci was even allowed by the communist authorities to open up some of the warehouses to furnish authentic period costumes and sets.One of the best films about the subject. This film won Best Picture during the Academy Awards in 1987 in Hollywood.
Also the movie has a haunting musical score.

(See the books "The Last Emperor" by NJ Irons for a more serious discussion. Also, see RE Johnston's book "Twilight in the Forbidden City". Johnston was one of His tutors, 1919-1924).

I only wish someone can do a similar movie about the last Russian Emperor/Tsar Nicholas II.