Dreadfully Boring

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Blistering performances.

This is a grand production for Wong Jin movies, and many Hong Kong luminaries stars in this rather epic story. I'm not sure if it was released as Cat 3 film, but the story is mostly about what happens in the bedroom between Hui (Chingmy Yau), and the emperor (plus the prince).This is the most pornographic of all the movies I've seen featuring Chingmy Yau, and as if it was to be the last hurrah of her career, and the Hong Kong cinema as it was prior to repatriation of Hong Kong to China, she (almost) bears it all in this movie. As it's usual for Wong Jin, the quality of the movie is high, and this one has expensive look to it as well. You can see that the people were still "free" when this movie was made, as they have bit more flamboyant attitude in acting. If you watch the more recent Hong Kong cinema, the acting is very stiff, and actor's attitude is much more tense. I kind of miss these old school Hong Kong movies.The story is basically a filler between the love scenes, and you should watch this movie to enjoy Chingmy Yau's sex appeal before she got married in 1997. There are many actors in this movie, but 90% of the acting (and dialogues although dubbed) is done by Chingmy Yau.Beautiful Chingmy Yau gives one of her last performances in this movie. She came a long ways from her young girl days in her earlier career to a fully mature woman in her later movies like this one. If you're a Chingmy Yau fan, you wouldn't want to miss this movie.

I was surprised to read the disclaimer at the end of this film to find that this is a fictional tale about the last empress and how she rose up through the ranks of unwanted concubine to hold a position of power in China, causing death, destruction and overall mayhem. It apparently is fiction, which makes it less interesting, but it is none the less watchable. It stars the beautiful, beguiling Chingmy Yau as Yu-Lan, who became a concubine, only to be rejected after one uneasy sexual encounter with the emperor. She enlists the help of two prostitutes to try to find out how to get that edge and it works. The movie is very suggestive and there is (simulated) sexual activity but I like the fact that very little is actually seen. It is not a great movie, but it passes the time pretty well. Chingmy Yau has been good in most of the films I've seen her in and here she plays up her obvious sexuality. She works for this film, and thats enough. If you like erotically charged period drama check it out.

There is a whole string of Hong Kong "historical" epics which are just excuses for sexy shenanigans in period costume, including Sex and the Emperor, the Sex and Zen trilogy, the Chinese Torture Chamber stories, and this, the tamest of them all. Chingamy Yau is one of the most striking of HK starlets (and she never does full nudity, even if it means concealments of Austen Powers-style absurdity), but is never really believable as a woman of fearsome power. The relative high production values and Yau's sensational mating dance are all which set this apart.

WARNING! In order to comment on the acting of the female lead I will quickly retell the story here and some may consider this summary as a spoiler!This film tells the story of an innocent girl who is destined to become one of the emperor´s concubines. At first she suffers a lot from the loss of innocence and the intrigues of the other concubines but in the course of time she becomes less and less scrupulous and finally is impregnated by the emperor and thus becomes his wife - the empress of China. However, her "career" has corrupted her once innocent soul and so, after the emperor dies she rules the land with terror.Chingmy Yau´s acting is terrific! In the beginning one simply has to like her character and in the end she becomes so fiendish one is tempted to believe she is actually possessed. And her acting is believable all the time. In addition to Yau´s wonderful performance the costumes and set pieces are just gorgeous. Summarizing all of the above I can only conclude that "Lover of the Last Empress" is well written, beautifully photographed and wonderfully acted. Don´t miss it!