The Last Emperor (1987)

Boarding Korean Airlines has been fun for me. They have a nice albeit few selection of movies both new and classic ones. One of these is the 1987 film The Last Emperor by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. The movie poster was familiar though I cannot recall where I saw it. I did remember visiting a museum in Xiamen back in 2008 where I first took an interest in Pu Yi. Last night, on our flight back to Manila, I chose that almost three-hour film and it doesn't disappoint.

The Last Emperor is a biographic film on the tragic life of Pu Yi who mostly lived his life in prison. The film opens with a grown Pu Yi being detained by the Russians. He tried to kill himself but was not not successful. Then came flashbacks of his life.

As an infant he was called to the Forbidden Palace after the death of the emperor. Empress Dowager Cixi proclaimed him as new emperor right then and there just before her own death. He was very pampered, with attendants around him ready to do his bidding. The people around him all assured him that he will be emperor forever. He was allowed to do everything he wished except to step outside the palace. The first time he questioned his power was when his brother visited him in the palace and told him that he is not the emperor, that the one who truly rules is the president who rides in a car. From then on, the young Pu Yi has a strong admiration for anything western, more so under the tutelage of a Scotsman named Reginald Johnston who later authored Twilight in the Forbidden City.

His first sorrow is perhaps having lost his wet nurse, his only friend inside a cold huge palace filled with rules. He chased after the carriage where his wet nurse was. When told he was already at an age where he no longer needs a wet nurse, he replied, "She's not a wet nurse. She's my butterfly." This scene is replicated later on in the film when his wife the Empress Wanrong leaves him in a car and he runs after the car but is unsuccessful.

Seemingly obsessed with being an emperor and unable to accept that he is merely a puppet, he agreed to collaborate with the Japanese and for a short period of time, ruled as puppet emperor of Manchuria which was in reality under Japanese control. It was there where his life crumbles away when he ignores his wife Wanrong who then gave birth to an illegitimate child. Her lover was the chauffeur. Her child was killed after birth by the Japanese.

When Japan announced surrender, Wanrong eventually returns a very changed person due to her addiction to opium. She spits at the Japanese, for whom she showed only contempt even before Pu Yi accepted their offer to rule over Manchuria.

Later on, Pu Yi undergoes the reeducation program under Communist rule where he begins to fend for his own. He later learns of the damage wrought by the Japanese especially in Nanking. Driven by guilt and feeling responsible for the sufferings of his country, he desires to just live in peace. He is eventually granted pardon and lives now as a gardener.

One day while in the streets, he witnesses a parade of "traitors" to the Communist cause. He sees the prison commander, his only friend in the reeducation program, and tries to persuade the soldiers that the man is good and does not deserve punishment, but in vain. Years later, he visits the Forbidden Palace as a tourist and climbs up the throne. A boy stops him and he says he used to be the emperor. Unbelieving, the boy asks him to produce an evidence and Pu Yi gets the wooden cricket house from under the throne. He received this as a gift on his coronation day.

The film ends showing tourists flocking to the Forbidden Palace, now no longer the home of the monarchs but an artifact of dynastic Imperial China.

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Watching this movie and seeing Pu Yi's struggles due to his status change from emperor to a commoner, I cannot help but think of the many little emperors in China today what with the sudden increase in number of the nouveau riche. Ill-mannered and self-centered, they will one day be at the helms of Chinese companies. It cannot be denied that China is a global power and its role in global affairs will be of importance. It is however very scary to see that the future leaders are those used to being spoiled and pampered. I wonder where the world is headed to?