Product Description

Takes us on a historical journey through the intricate schemes and sometimes outrageous lives of the emperor his concubines and his followers. English with chinese subtitles. Studio: Tai Seng Entertainment Release Date: 06/19/2001 Starring: Tony K.f. Leung Chingmy Yau Run time: 97 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86746 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-01-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese
• Subtitled in: English, Chinese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Customer Reviews

The Rise of the Empress Dowager
Previously, I've only thought of Tzu Hsi as the old imperial Empress Dowager who ruled China for a half century. "The Lover of the Last Empress" is not a Chinese action movie. It's a drama chronicling the rise of Tzu Hsi from imperial concubine to Empress.

There's a lot of sexual content. But the story is of a concubine whose role was to be a sexual object of the emperor.

Tsu Hsi was probably one of the most ruthless women in history. She was the mother of the new child emperor, when Emperor Hseih Feng died of illness at an early age. But Emperor Hseih Feng's edict left the regency to eight trusted advisers and empowerment of his widow Queen. Also the late Emperor Hseih Feng's brother Prince Kung had the military power in the capital. The concubine Tzu Hsi overcame them all to rise to Empress.

The movie only deals with the rise of Tzu Hsi. As a historical note, Tzu Hsi is said to have murdered her own son in order to retain power as regent by naming a child successsor.

There is a lot of bad translation in the movie. I had to rewind some of the dialog. But it is a good movie about the subject.

A good companion to this movie is a two part Chinese saga dealing with the same subject, "The Burning of Imperial Palace" and "Reign Behind the Curtain." The latter two movies were made in the early 80's.

Doesn't quite deliver
This historical period drama focuses on the young concubine played by Chingamy Yau who manipulates the Emperor through her sexuality and eventually takes power. The film is a Hong Kong Category III classification which suggests that it will contain far more nudity and sexually explicit scenes than it does. There are a number of supposedly erotic scenes but they fail to titillate with the possible exception of the pseudo-lesbian scene. Paradoxically the sex scenes are as tasteful as they are gratuitous. There are a couple of action scenes but not near enough to satisfy fans of the genre. The concept of the female concubine being the strong, intelliegent character while the male Emperor is shown as weak is unlikely to win any support from feminists as she only achieves power through exploiting her sexuality. There are a few surprises in the movie and it is reasonably well filmed. Anyone looking erotica will probably be disappointed as there are better films available. Those who are looking for the type action Hong Kong action typified by John Woo films would be advised to opt for a film by the aforementioned director. For fans of Chingamy Yau this film is an absolute must have. For everyone else there are worse films that you could watch, but alas, there are also a good many better.

Crouching Emperor, Hidden Concubine
Actually, the screenplay has quite a bit of historical, uh, accuracy to it; Prince Kung was the Emperor's brother and he did act as councilor to the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi, who was a concubine who gave birth and thus rose from being a bedmate to run the vast lands of China until 1908.

The film has a touch of "Crouching Tiger" when Prince Kung dispatches some bandits with a paper fan. The "sex" scenes are soft porn with some nudity (tastefully done) and the film was amusing and quite diverting. Is is a "good" film? Nah, but it sure is fun and it tells a good tale while managing to be diverting. Not for kiddies or prudes or scholars of Oriental history.