The Last Emperor

The Last Emperor (1987) is Bernardo Bertolucci's historical drama you can watch online on iFILM. In 1908, a three-year-old boy named Pu Yi was placed on the throne of the Qing dynasty — surrounded by a thousand servants, sealed inside the Forbidden City, and worshipped as a living god who could not step outside his own palace gates.

John Lone plays Pu Yi as an adult: a man stripped of every title and illusion, dragged through abdication, Japanese occupation in Manchukuo, and finally a quiet life trimming hedges in the People's Republic. Joan Chen is his wife Wan Jung; Peter O'Toole plays his Scottish tutor Reginald Johnston, one of the few people who ever spoke to him as a human being. Ryuichi Sakamoto composed the score — and appears on screen as a Japanese officer.

Shot inside the actual Forbidden City, the first Western production ever permitted to do so. At the 1988 Academy Awards, the film took every category it entered — nine nominations, nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Watch The Last Emperor online on iFILM.