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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1988)
_I RESEARCH Shedding light on birth defect^ ^ Support the Op March olPjmes I j Why didn’t you go | to the Palm Beach' j Tanning Salon | before Spring break? I I I 5604 So. 48th St. 423-3202 I [ Bring in this ad for 1 0% Off! UPC Black Special Events presents DR. HARRY EDWARDS speaking on “Let's Put the * Dumb Jock' to Rest” Feb, 26 7 PM Union Ballroom Dinner Tickets: $5.75 for students $6.75 for non-students General Admission Tickets without meal: $1.00 for students $2.00 for non-students Tickets on sale at Gty Union front desk today thru Tues. Feb. 23 ^ Get Yours TODAY! V ) vj) vj) y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y $120 CASH j s 2 (' Our rates for plasma donations have increased. Earn up x J to $120 cash per month while donating the life-saving J S substance used for medical research and routine medical $ S care. $ <; 2 ', Hours 8-6 daily, 8-3 Sat., 9-2 Sun. S New donors accepted 8-3 daily, 8-2 Sat. and 9-1 Sun. $ 9 l 3 No appointment necessary, and 2 free hours parking at all £ 0 Park & Shops. For more information call the Friendly ^ ): Professionals at ▼ $ $ 1 Lincoln Plasma Corp. f $ 126 N. 14th Suite #2 $ «: 474-2335 $ s) J Located between Ted & Wally’s and the Zoo Bar % v ) y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y yt^ y y y y y y y y y From Chicago Eddie Shaw And The Wolfgang (Formerly the Howlin Wolf Blues Band) Hot Blues From Chicago Friday, Feb. 19, 9 pm - lam $3.00 Swamp-Rock From Austin, Texas The Tail Gators This hot trio features former Thunderbuds bass player, Keith Ferguson and guitartist Don Leady, formerly with the LeRoi Bros. * | One Night Only! Sat., Feb. 20, 9 pm* 1 am j $4.00 at the Door I Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Peter O’Toole and a cast of thousands in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor.” ‘Last Emperor’ a regal film By John P. Coffey Staff Reviewer Imagine yourself the ruler of more than half the people in the world. Your home has 9,999 rooms, hundreds of women for your own pleasure, countless servants at your disposal. Your titles include “Lord of 10,000 Years” and “Son of Heaven.” Too good to be true? Perhaps. In the case of Pu Yi, it was. He gre w up probably the loneliest boy in the world. Pu was “The Last Emperor” of China. His life story, now a movie, is a saga seemingly so unreal that no storybook would touch it. But it really happened, and in the 20lh i century. In 1908, Pu Yi was 3 years old and already the emperor of China’s Ching Dynasty. Four years later, China becamca republic, and 3,000 years of imperial rule came to an end. But the boy emperor did not know this. Shielded from reality by his advisers, Pu was not allowed to roam beyond the castle walls of the Forbidden City. Even though the city was a life of luxury (the man sion had 9,999 rooms; the Chinese believed only Heaven had 10,(KX)), it was also a life of loneliness. While the rest of China pro gressed toa republic, the emperor’s world remained trapped in the past. He was the only boy in China w ith out the frecdorn to walk out his front door. Like many with great power and demands, Pu’s advisers con trolled his personal affairs. Even though he had, within the palace, all the power one could want, he had no freedom, no friends — he knew no one his age. They say it’s lonely at the top. In 1924, Pu Yi married two wives and reality came knocking at the palace door. Reality was a war lord who took over the Forbidden City. The emperor finally realized he had no power. He was given one hour to leave the only four walls he’d ever known. His tutor and perhaps only friend, Reginald Johnston, arranged for Pu and his wives to leave in safety. After a few years of life in the fast lane, Pu received the opportu nity to regain some of the power he’d been denied as a child. Or so he thought. The Japanese controlled the land of his ancestors, Manchuria (renamed Manchukuo). They of fered him the job of emperor. But like his childhood reign, he wasn’t really in charge; he was nothing more than a puppet emperor. Once again the truth was concealed from him. World War II saw the defeat of the Japanese. Manchukuo fells to the Soviets. Four years later, com munist troops under Mao Tsc-Tung took control of China, and Pu Yi, the former emperor, became a pris oner in Mao’s rc-cducalion prison. The movie ends with Pu’s pardon and his last few years, spent as a simple gardener. Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” tells one man’s search for freedom. Pu’s life is an inverted pyramid from the norm. Instead of starting out with all the freedom in the world and then struggling for power, Pu begins life with all the power in the world: He just wants to be free. He finds that it is not the riches and power of this world that set a person free. Freedom is found being a gardener and nursing the earth. Power is a secondary theme, prevalent in Pu’s struggles to regain it during his puppet reign as Manchukuo’s emperor. The power struggles during the scenes docu menting Mao’s re-education arc fascinating. This epic film’s enormous undertaking is most impressive. The negotiations with the Chinese government paving the way to shoot this true story took two years alone. According to press release information from Columbia Pic tures, the Chinese government gave the production crew total freedom in shooting on location. In return, the government asked for Chinese distribution rights. Reportedly the only intervention by the Chinese government in this not-so-flattcring account of China’s Mao-era atrocities was script approval and correction of factual inaccuracies. Four actors play Pu Yi at various stages of his life. John Lone, an actor from Hong Kong now living in the United States, stars as the adult Pu. Also in the film, Joan Chen, as one of his wives, and Peter O’Toole, as his tutor, do a wonder ful job. “The Last Emperor,” nominated for nine Academy Awards, is now showing at the Douglas 3 Theaters at 5:20 and 8:30 p.m. Blonde Waltz is to the beat of a heart REVIEW BOARD from Page 6 Blonde Waltz, “The Perfect Dark” (Chrome Angel Records) Blonde Waltz creates all the feel ings associated with love — ranging from the joy and excitement of a soaring heart to the pain and despair love also can bring — on their first album, “The Perfect Dark.” Blonde Waltz takes its name from “Subterranean Homesick Blues & the Blonde Waltz,” a chapter from “Tarantula” by Bob Dylan. The Lin coln trio consists of Terri II Clements, bass; Bobby Hciscr, drums; and Richard Sullivan, guitar and vocals. The band grew out of a ’60s garage pop band, The Gears. Blonde Waltz’s music is a synthe sis of the pop sounds of the ’60s and the psycho-social “Zeitgeist” of the '80s, a style that characterizes popu lar music of today. And Blonde Waltz brings a fresh approach to this genre that is slowly decaying into something potentially so bland, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the mid- to late-1970s. The music on this album is full of interesting contrasts. That may be what sets this band’s sound apart. Guitar work as clear as clarion bells is set against Sullivan’s haunting voice. Melodies floating on the wind arc set againstadriving, fundamental rhythm section. And on some songs, heart-wrenching lyrics arc accompa nied by spiritually uplifting music. The album is passionate. “This is an emotionally honest record with sensual and danccable music,” Sullivan said. “I don’t want this to be throwaway music, back ground music, wallpaper music. I want it to last—to have meaning and substance beyond today.” The nine songs on the album arc a tribute to those goals. They are soul ful expressions of the dilemmas faced by lovers that inspire the listen ers to dance — or, if they’re shy, to at least tap their toes. That is what rock and roll is all about. “Everything Tonight,” a darkly sensual song about the freedom in surrender, opens side one of “The Perfect Dark.” “I Love a Russian,” a dance tunc with political tones, is probably the only song in history that combines Chevys, Bob Dylan, Leon Trotsky, Ivan Turgenev, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Josef Stalin. A lead guitar reminiscent of Dire Straits, a reggae-style rhythm and rough vocals make “Gettin’ Used to It” a song that drips with emotion. ‘‘Young Hearts” is a light, bounc ing pop tune that provides a sharp contrast to “That’s When Love Hurts,” the rawest song on the album. “They Call it Love,” in which a searing solo guitar characterizes the pain, sacrifice and inherent loneli ness in love, opens side two. “Wild Boys,” a song inspired by William Burroughs’ book of the same name, is a glimpse into a dark urban world of the future — a world of burgeoning nco-violcncc in which no love can exist. — Mick Dyer