At last I have seen the famous film "The Last Emperor" . For years I wanted to see that film.I have always been attracted to that Chinese adorable kid running in those huge hallways. The award wining film is about the life of China's Last Emperor Puyi with all its rich details in it. Puyi is unknown to most of the people of the world thanks to the coups there ended by the Mao Zedong rule who became China's emperor in the 20th Century.
The film was good overall despite ,it does not make from Puyi a hero but rather than a human being who made his mistakes and paid for it heavily , so heavily. After all collaborating with the Japanese invaders and becoming the so called Emperor of Manchukuo is a treason regardless of the justifications. I was surprised that he was not executed but rather being sent to a Chinese prison till he was reformed turning from an Emperor to Citizen. Mao's regime for sure is not your usual Communist regime, Russia he would have been killed from a very long time.
I think Puyi was a victim of an upbringing that made him a prisoner of traditions and palaces. He wanted to be free and live a western way of life but also he wanted to be an Emperor of an Eastern Country. He wanted be a sovereign emperor of China where as he was a no sovereign emperor worshiped by his entourage inside the forbidden City which he did not leave except after 20 years of his life. He wanted to live on the western side but ended to be a traitor and a puppet of the Japanese who used him till the end against his own country people. The country people whom I think he did not know for real , he knew the history ,the tradition and his creepy entourage in the forbidden City but he did not know the Chinese people for real,this is a deadly mistake.
You must see the film because it will introduce to a part from the Chinese history.It is great despite it is sad in the last part but I loved the ending. By the way from an artistic point view , this is very beautiful film,it already won 9 academy awards.
BY the way I do not know they did not mention that he remarried in 1962 and he wrote a book by the recommendation “or rather an order" by Mao” about his life and how he transferred from an Emperor to a citizen.
When I checked about his life that Henry or Pu Yi as he called himself was the laugh of the west in WWII after all he was on the wrong side of the war. He was frequently the Puppet even till his death in 1967
I do not know why the last emperors and kings always have this dramatic life.
I do not know why most of those last kings and emperors want to be free from all their royal obligations but at the same time they want to be remembered in the history.
Unfortunately they are always remembered as the last emperors and kings :(
Also here are very important two books about the life of Puyi :
- His own autobiography "From Emperor to Citizen"
- His own tutor Reginald Fleming Johnston's book about him "Twilight in the forbidden City" , it was mentioned in the film.
I have only just watched this beautiful movie & cannot understand how the world stood by and let this man with 100's of years of tradition & culture behind him fade into obscurity. The Last Emperor - he was a living treasure. He was an endangered species & the world did nothing.
ReplyDelete"I do not know why most of those last kings and emperors want to be free from all their royal obligations but at the same time they want to be remembered in the history."
ReplyDeleteBecause they are also human beings. Every human being wishes to have their lives matter in the world, to be relevant. More so, when one is the Last Emperor, because even though he is the last of his kind, no one can take away or deny him his self-identity as a Emperor of China, not even Mao.
In the end, the Last Emperor did live a very full life, and human life by its very nature is dramatic :) and thus, a very full and well-lived one. Probably he was one of the few of his kind (the entire line of the Emperors of China) who live the entirety of the human experience and spectrum, that from the heights as an Emperor, to that of a normal citizen.
They are always Men of Destiny, even if they might be the last of their kind.
Good article... keep-up the good work.... May I share a blog about Beijing, at Forbidden City in https://stenote.blogspot.com/2018/10/beijing-at-forbidden-city.html
ReplyDeleteWatch also the video in youtube https://youtu.be/mFRbH9breNk