The Last Emperor
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Writers: Mark People (writer) and Bernardo Bertolucci (writer)
Release Date: 18 December 1987 (USA)
Outline: Explores the clash between Chinese culture and American culture.
He was the Lord of Ten Thousand Years, the absolute monarch of China. He was born to rule a world of ancient tradition. Nothing prepared him for our world of change.
This is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic. Told in an interesting flashback/flash-forward style, we learn of Pu Yi's childhood, the time he spent imprisoned in the Forbidden City, his term as the emperor of Japans Manchuguo, and his eventual release back to public life in 1959.
