Shot inside the Forbidden City, The Last Emperor is a remarkable example of meticulous product of filmmaking prowesness ranging from the marvelous visual, poetic images, fantastic set designs, splendidly lavish costumes as well as the powerful film script. This film chronicles the life of Emperor Puyi, its beauty and tragedy, his pride and the deteriorated hopes, his shattered dreams and all. I still believe that Bernardo Bertolucci really is a pioneering filmmaker who specializes in epic film scale such as this one, Hollywood gave him Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and six other categories. I guess having John Lone, Joan Chen and also the Hollywood-decorated star Peter O'Toole really helped lifting up the film from the deteriorating ending. My last statement refers to the fact that some people, whom, including myself feel that the film loses its power (the script and character development) after the first half of the duration.Bertolucc seems to have lost his creativity and ability to maintain the greatness of the plot and story flow that he's been building since the beginning of this wonderful saga.