The Last Emperor
A child emperor fights to preserve his throne amid a collapsing dynasty, only to confront foreign conquest, betrayal, and his own loss of identity in a relentless struggle for survival.
“1500 slaves. 353,260,000 royal subjects. Warlords. Concubines. And 2 wives. He was the loneliest boy in the world.”
Synopsis
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 67+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Gabriella CristianiShot by Vittorio StoraroScored by David ByrneDesigned by Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Box Office
1987 · Box office
⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.8× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$44.0M
US & Canada: $44.0M — 100% of worldwide · International: $16K (0%)
Opening weekend: $299K — 1% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $299K — 1% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 5 theaters
Also known as
- Der Letzte Kaiserde
- El último emperadores
- Le Dernier Empereurfr
- L'ultimo imperatoreit
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Cast & Crew
67 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Supporting cast
45Fumihiko Ikeda
as Yoshioka
Richard Vuu
as Pu Yi (3 years)
Tsou Tijger
as Pu Yi (8 years)
Tao Wu
as Pu Yi (15 years)
Guang Fan
as Pu Chieh (Adult)
Henry Kyi
as Pu Chieh (7 years)
Alvin Riley Iii
as Pu Chieh (14 years)
Lisa Lu
as Tzu Hsui
Hideo Takamatsu
as General Ishikari
Hajime Tachibana
as Japanese Translator
Basil Pao
as Prince Chun
Henry O
as Lord Chamberlain
Chen Kaige
as Captain of Imperial Guard
Liangbin Zhang
as Big Foot
Wenjie Huang
as Hunchback
Dong Liang
as Lady Aisin-Gioro
Zhendong Dong
as Old Doctor
Jiechen Dong
as Doctor
Constantine Gregory
as Oculist
Huaikuei Soong
as Lung Yu
Ruzhen Shao
as First High Consort
Yu Li
as Second High Consort
Guangli Li
as Third High Consort
Chunqing Xu
as Grey Eyes
Zhang Tianmin
as Old Tutor
Hongnian Luo
as Sleeping Old Tutor
Shihong Yu
as Hsiao Hsiu
Jun Wu
as Wen Hsiu (12 years)
Lucia Hwong
as Lady of the Book
Jingping Cui
as Lady of the Pen
Shi Liang
as Republican Officer
Junguo Gu
as Tang
Xu Tongrui
as Captain of Feng's Army
Fusheng Li
as Minister of Trade
Chen Shu
as Chang Chinghui
Shuyan Cheng
as Lady Hiro Saga
Daxing Zhang
as Tough Warder
Ruigang Zu
as Second Warder
Yuan Jin
as Party Boss
Akira Ikuta
as Japanese Doctor
Michael Vermaaten
as American
Matthew Spender
as Englishman
Cai Hongxiang
as Scarface (uncredited)
Glen Murphy
as Captain (uncredited)
Biao Wang
as Prisoner (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
3Producers
1Other crew
7Parents Guide
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Live · bot-verified- The Criterion ChannelStream
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