The Last Emperor is a film following the life of China’s last emperor Puyi. The film is mostly shown through flashbacks as an incarcerated Puyi retells his story, much more of a confession, to high commanders at a re-education camp on the border between Russia and China.

My main issue with the film is the fact it’s all in English, I would have rather watched the film reading subs, I feel it was less authentic and more trying to appease a western audience. And yeah it is a westernized film, it takes a liberal stance, semi glorifying the monarchy and its traditions rather than focusing on the people outside of this circle who are mostly affected by everything going on in China. Given the benefit of doubt, yes the film is trying to get you to sympathize with Puyi, a child born into royalty, having no connection with parents and being locked inside the temple with no way out. Do I feel bad no because the kid acts like an asshole. He has a fascination with his power, he obviously abuses it as a child mostly because of his anger and hatred for his own life and the people around it. The film does showcase this well, especially the part where Puyi becomes emperor again after being evicted by the nationalist army, his want for power still persists as he ages. I read up on Puyi and from what I read it seemed like he really did change, the film however has a different goal and wants you to believe he still wants to be emperor or still believes he is emperor, as the final seen shows him talking to a young boy who tells him not to sit on the throne at Puyi’s old palace where he used to live. Puyi tells the boy “I am the last emperor of China”, I would have rather him abandon that title especially since he was re-educated for 10 years. If he truly did change, why would he tell this boy he was emperor? Of course the film is trying to be cute with its conclusion, I did like the cricket scene. But I still have issues with the film, the way it portrays communism or its lack of portrayal is what bothered me most, I was expecting to see more of his re-education process rather than watching his life story. I would keep looking at the time wondering when Mao’s China would be established but we saw little to none of that. It just sort of appeared, from the films start to near the end. I think I understand this as the director wanting us to feel the same alienation Puyi may have felt, an uneducated man, closed off from the outside world, we see lots of the disconnect in scenes where Puyi plays behind a large cloth as no other child is allowed to touch him. Instead he is behind the sheet, the other children on the other side of the sheet. A similar instance happens during an intimate scene with his two wives. This disconnect may explain why we don’t see as much of the outside world as I wanted, and yeah it is a film about the last emperor so why would it be about communism?

Some scenes were good but I was mostly dissatisfied. I’ll give it a 4/10 but a 5 for some of the cinematography