The Last Tempest (1976)

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瀛台泣血 (1976)

The Last Tempest

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy
Date: 09/26/2004
Summary: Hmmm........

Not as good as the first and the middle bored me with the seperation of the emperor and his concubine, though Yueh Hua last speech is powerful. I am not much of a drama movie watcher i must admit this, but i didn't mind watching this, even though i did press the fast forward button in the middle

6/10

Reviewed by: mpongpun
Date: 02/16/2003

This flick is the sequel to Empress Dowager. Again, the sets were spectacular, the acting excellent, and attention to all the little details was mind boggling. In this sequel, like the first one, there is bickering and backstabbing. There are basically 2 camps, the Empress Dowagers group—the old heads—and the new reformists led by Kuang Hsu (Ti Lung). The movie basically picks off from the first part as China lost the Sino-Japanese war. Kuang Hsu then starts to reform China with the “100 days of reform” plan. The plan wasn’t working well because the men in Kuang Hsu’s camp felt that the old regime still had a foot in the new plans so therefore the reform would never be successful. Kuang Hsu’s camp thought of a plan to wipe out the old conservatives and that included the Empress Dowager. The plan backfired as the Empress Dowager caught whiff of the plan as she mobilized the military and the rest of the conservatives to stage a coup on Kuang Hsu and put herself back on the throne. The Empress Dowager then confined Kuang Hsu to his palace and captured all the folks that were part of her failed usurping and killed them. Again, another good historical drama by Li Han Hsiang. I wish he would have done another one with the Empress Dowager and the Boxer Rebellion, the poisoning of Kuang Hsu, and her death.