The Last Emperor

The Last EmperorBernardo Bertolucci?s epic film, ?the Last Emperor? tells the narration of twentieth century China through the biography of Pu Yi. In a series of flash forwards and flashbacks we determine from 1908 when, as a three year old, he is named emperor butterfly by his aunt, The Dowager Empress CiXi through his death in 1967. PuYi is often a pawn and victim to the tale around him and we see the corresponding is true of Chinese history of the time as the Manchu Dynasty ends and the clownish moves from feudalism, through foreign invasion and occupation, into a revolution and last to a more modern society.

The film opens in 1950, when PuYi is existence held as a war criminal and tries to kill himself. This causes the early of many flashbacks and we see the young emperor living an unbelievably opulent life within the walls of the Forbidden City. He is unendingly attended by many servants and followed everywhere by eunuchs. As he grows older he becomes angry when he realizes that he has power over nothing. When he learns to ride his first wheel he is stopped from leaving the Forbidden City by his own guards. We begin to see that although he is Emperor, throughout his history he is always a prisoner.



Expelled from the Forbidden City, along with his wife and consort, when he is eighteen, they are forced to live in Tianjin low the protection of the Japanese. In 1930 he becomes the puppet-emperor of Manchuko and again found himself with minuscule freedom and no power. This was followed by fifteen years in both Russian and Chinese prisons until he was finally released as an old man in 1957.

The film maker, Bernardo Bertolucci, is known to be a Marxist and we see a...

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