THE LAST EMPEROR

Genre: Drama
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Rated: M
Released: 1987
Country: CHI

This film follows Pu YiÌs extraordinary journey from Emperor to gardener, spanning almost seven decades of profound and turbulent change throughout China and the world. Crowned at the tender age of 3, Pu Yi has a spoiled but lonely childhood, during which China transitions from an Empire to a Republic. In 1912 he is forced to abdicate, and is imprisoned in the Forbidden City. He appoints Scotsman Reginald F. Johnston (Peter OÌToole) as his tutor, eager to learn the ways of the modern world. As a teen, he marries Wan Jung (Joan Chen). When he is exiled by the Government, they take shelter in the Japanese compound in Tientsin, where ÏHenryÓ Pu Yi (John Lone) lives the life of a playboy on imperial wealth, while the Chinese nationalists and communists fight for control of China. In 1934, Pu Yi is reinstated in Japanese Manchuguo as Emperor, and naively pursues national independence - while Wan Jung sinks into opium addiction and depression. In 1937, Japan attacks Shanghai from Manchuguo, the beginning of a larger imperial war. When it ends in 1941, the emperor is eventually imprisoned by Communist China, as a traitor. After ten long years, he is finally released as a reformed man, a humble gardener. He dies during MaoÌs cultural revolution in 1967.