If "Farewell to the Overlord" makes people revered and remembered, then "The Last Emperor" can naturally afford to look up.
The film was directed by Italian director Bernardo . A biographical film directed by Bertolucci and starring Zun Long. The film was released in 1987. The film is framed by Mr. Johnston's Twilight of the Forbidden City and Puyi's "The First Half of My Life", which narrates the last emperor, Ai Xinjueluo. Puyi's tortuous life won the 60th Academy Awards and the first film (except documentaries) allowed by the Chinese government to be filmed in the Forbidden City.
The film highly restores history, presents people with the tragic life of the last emperor Puyi, and also has a very in-depth description of China's modern history, from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, and then from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China, interlocking and rich in content.
We subconsciously think that Puyi is a controversial and positioned sinner emperor, but in the film perspective he becomes an ambitious but repeatedly played by fate. His life was full of tragedies, from the Forbidden City to Tianjin, and then from the puppet state of Manchukuo to prison, he had no choice, perhaps from the time he became the last emperor of China, his fate seemed to have become a foregone conclusion. He tried to resist and struggle, but his life would not be as free as an ordinary man, and the invisible cage bound him.
Storyline
In 1908, the crumbling Qing Dynasty was faltering in the wind and rain, the Guangxu Emperor collapsed, the court was in chaos, the country could not be left without a monarch for a day, and Empress Dowager Cixi, who only had one breath left, confessed to the three-year-old Ai Xin Jue Luo Puyi to inherit the throne, this young child will experience the sunset of China's feudal dynasty, and more chaotic times are waiting for him.
In the palace, he was cared for in every way, and the eunuchs told him that he was the emperor, the true dragon tianzi, and the banzai grandfather who could do whatever he wanted. Xiao Puyi spent his only three years as emperor in a curious and cheerful life.
After the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, China's feudal dynasty, which lasted for more than two thousand years, came to an end and was replaced by a democratic republic, the supremacy of imperial power no longer existed, and the equality of all people gradually became popular. Xiao Puyi, who had only been emperor for a few years, was forced to step down, and could only be an "emperor" in the Forbidden City, and the people around him never told him about things outside. As a young man, he was bound by the tall palace walls, by the feudal decay and the system that must be followed, by the deception of lies, so that his biological mother died, and he could not visit it. The little emperor was troubled by confusion, he was disappointed, but he was helpless, and did not understand why all this was. Once he crossed the red wall of the court and crossed the main hall, the young figure in the empty Forbidden City, howling and shouting, but to no avail, fate was already playing with him.
In 1919, China entered the warlord era, the British teacher Johnston was hired into the palace and became Puyi's foreign teacher, and the 14-year-old Puyi began to accept Western culture. Under the influence of Johnston, Puyi had his own sense of independence and began to abandon the traditional concepts of the past. Perhaps for Puyi, this period is the best time in his life. After Puyi reached the age when he should get married, the spouse he wanted was a girl who was proficient in foreign languages and fashionable, but the reality was not that he thought it was simple, influenced by feudal traditions, his spouse was destined, Wanrong became her empress, and the girl he chose Became his noble concubine.
Puyi gradually grew up, he began to have his own consciousness ability, he knew that the eunuchs in the palace were corrupt, he knew that he was an emperor who existed in name only, he knew the unwillingness of his fate, and he was full of ambition to do something. Soon he expelled more than a thousand eunuchs in the palace, looking at the people who had grown up with him, although he could not bear it, Puyi still walked away without looking back, and he began to reverse his fate.
In 1924 the situation changed. Soldiers of the Beiyang warlords surrounded the Forbidden City and forced Puyi to leave the palace. Puyi left the Forbidden City for the first time since he was three years old, and Johnston arranged political asylum for him in the British Embassy, but under the recommendation of Puyi, Puyi accepted the help of the Japanese. Puyi came to Tianjin and began his playboy life, living a chaotic and bad life all day. His former noble concubine Wen Xiu saw that Puyi was so ashamed of her position and resolutely ran away.
At this time, Puyi had fallen into the trap of the Japanese, and the Japanese were just using him. The Japanese sent female agent Yoshiko Kawashima to accompany Wanrong, using her, and dividing Puyi's relationship with the Republic of China, giving him the idea of establishing a puppet Manchurian Empire. This is very good news for Puyi, who is not able to be fooled by fate, which can satisfy Puyi's selfish desires, he wants to use the Japanese to help him establish his own country, but everything is a conspiracy.
Puyi was bent on restoration, and under the impetus of this desire, he went to Changchun and ascended to the throne of the puppet Manchurian Empire in 1932, unaware that he was already a puppet emperor. Kawashima Yoshiko continues to seduce Wanrong and let her smoke opium, and Wanrong gradually degenerates, despairs, and her relationship with Puyi becomes more and more distant. Puyi scolded Wanrong for becoming an opium ghost, but Wanrong said that in your pseudo-Manchurian country, any store can buy opium.
In 1935, Puyi had already discovered that he was a puppet emperor, and Wanrong was pregnant, but the child was not Puyi's, because of some accidents Wanrong was finally sent to a psychiatric hospital, Puyi chased the vehicle behind, but another door was tightly closed, blocking Puyi outside, Puyi shouted to open the door, no one answered. A series of blows made Puyi miserable.
In 1945, Japan was defeated and the puppet state of Manchukuo, which had lasted for 13 years, was overthrown. When Puyi fled, he saw his wife Wanrong, who had been away for a long time. Wanrong was already crazy, no longer what she used to be, and when she met Puyi, Wanrong closed the door. During Puyi's escape, he was captured by the Soviet Red Army at Changchun Airport, and then handed over to China, where he was imprisoned for ten years. During the imprisonment, Puyi was forced to work on his own, and the people who had previously served him no longer existed, and he had to learn to live and govern. Puyi in prison gradually understood a lot of truths, he was not only a victim but also a member of the culprit, he began to take on many responsibilities, although some of the responsibilities were not his fault, perhaps for him to bear is liberation.
In 1959, Puyi was pardoned, and he became a florist with the skills he learned in prison, and began his ordinary life. In 1967, China was in the stage of the Cultural Revolution, and all the order of life was disrupted. He saw the Red Guards on the street escorting a group of bourgeoisie, one of whom was the director of his former prison, he rushed forward to tell the Red Guards, this person is a good person, but no one will pay attention, Puyi was pushed to the ground by the Red Guards, at this moment he already understood that the identity is different, just an ordinary person.
This year Puyi once again came to the Forbidden City, at this time the Forbidden City has become a tourist attraction, in the evening tourists dispersed, Puyi walked to the palace, he looked much older under the sunset, he staggered, his eyes were staring ahead.
He ascended to the Taihe Hall alone, but was stopped by the son of the palace administrator, and then described it with a plot.
Child: "You are not allowed to go up, who are you?" ”
Puyi: "I was the last emperor of China, and this was once my home." ”
Child: "What proof?" ”
Puyi walked to the dragon chair, took out from under it the cockroach box that he had played with when he was a child, handed it to him, and smiled like a child.
The child opened, and soon an old cockroach came out, and when he looked back at the dragon chair, Puyi was gone.
Every day, many people come to visit the Taihe Temple, and almost every tour guide will introduce it: this is the Taihe Temple, where the last emperor of China, Ai Xin Jue Luo Puyi, was three years old at the time and died in 1967.
What is everyone's view of the last emperor Puyi?