The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) has to be up there. Literally glorifies the stock market and presents a finance bro job as the key to happiness. There's a scene near the start where Will Smith is outside the NYSE looking at all the suits going in and out and narrating how he was inspired by how happy everyone was, and how this inspired him to bootlick his way into some internship, the pursuit of which literally requires him to alienate his friends and family and sleep in subway bathrooms with his five-year-old son. Everyone in the movie is a lazy, unscrupulous asshole, except for the rich people, of course, who are portrayed as generous and open-minded for allowing Will Smith in the door after he kisses their asses the whole movie. All of his struggle with homelessness and poverty etc. is portrayed not as injustice but as the ideal scenario, rewarding the hardest, most dedicated worker with a job. It is literally r/upliftingnews: the movie.

  • Sklorp [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Puyi got a variety of jobs. Amateur actor, street sweeper, gardener, tour guide. His sister got a normal job, Empress Wanrong was dead, his second consort Wenxiu had a really sad life but divorced him years before, His third consort Tan Yuling was dead, this fourth consort Li Yuqin divorced him in 58 after the CCP mandate that she get along with Puyi had failed and ended up living with some working class dude and suffering a lot of harassment for having been married to Puyi (Harassment Puyi didn't get) she was also really mad at having been a mere sex object for Puyi for her entire adult life, and his "cousin" Yoshiko Kawashima had been executed. Really he just had his sister until he found another wife.

    I know too much about puyi. He's just a really fascinating figure

    • LoudMuffin [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      His time in prison greatly changed him, and he expressed deep regret for his actions while emperor. In 1962, he married a commoner, Li Shuxian, for whom he had a deep affection

      bloomer energy tbh

      • Sklorp [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        They were married almost as soon as they met, and apparently they were very affectionate. She requested to be buried next to Puyi but the CCP nixed it.

        Possibly because her specific request was that Wanrong also be there, and nobody knows where Wanrongs body is, possibly they don't want to put people in the qing tombs for historical reasons.

    • Sklorp [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Also as a side note everyone who spoke of his job performances notes that he was bad at most things and very clumsy (Except acting, he was a good actor). But he genuinely seemed like he's been reformed. He would be embarrassed by waitstaff serving him, and he refused to board vehicles until everyone else was seated which meant he missed his ride once when he waited for the conductor to get seated before he'd go in.

      He also reprimanded Pujie for reconnecting with his Japanese wife.

      I'm sorry for the posts but Puyi is just so interesting.

      • The_Jewish_Cuban [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        You should make a big post about it if it hasn't been done yet. This sounds really interesting

        • Sklorp [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          You know I might. It'll be my one chance to write a historical essay touching on complex human emotions and a nuanced historical subject and entitle it "Puyi is stored in the balls"