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The Last Emperor (1987, UK/It./China/HK)
In Bernardo Bertolucci's visionary Best Picture-winning
epic, an epic biography about the life of Pu Yi, the last imperial
ruler of China, told in flashback:
- the sight of the last emperor of the Qing dynasty
- 3 year-old child emperor Pu Yi (Richard Vuu as 3 years old),
who ascended to the "Dragon Throne" in 1908 when pronounced
the new emperor by the dying Empress Dowager Cixi (Lisa Lu) - "I
have decided that you will be the new Lord of Ten-Thousand years.
You will be the Son of Heaven"; he toddled out beyond a billowing
yellow curtain to view outside the palace throne room the lined-up
hordes of supporters, eunuchs and ritualistic worshippers
- the young boy's interest in a cricket pet given to
him by an elderly Mandarin on his coronation day - becoming "the
Emperor's Cricket"
- the scenes of the fixated young boy (up until age
10) being wet-nursed (breast-fed) by Ar Mo (Jade Go)
- the scene of the teenaged emperor riding his bicycle
to the outer gate and being forbidden to leave the imprisoning Forbidden
City walls
- the young emperor's Western-style tutoring beginning
in 1919 by Scot Reginald 'R.J.' Johnston (Peter O'Toole), a faithful
yet ascerbic gentleman, who realized how imprisoned the emperor had
become: ("The Emperor has been a prisoner in his own palace
since the day that he was crowned, and has remained a prisoner since
he abdicated. But now he's growing up, he may wonder why he's the
only person in China who may not walk out of his own front door.
I think the Emperor is the loneliest boy on Earth"); and later
the scene of their final goodbye in the back seat of a vehicle before
Johnston boarded a ship
- the scene of preparations for his marriage to a modern
woman (who knew the latest dance steps and was educated outside of
China) - in which he unveiled his arranged marriage partner Wan Jung
(Joan Chen) after which she smothered him with lipstick-kisses all
over his bald head - and later in a polygamous arrangement, shared
his bed with a second wife - concubine/consort Wen Hsiu (Vivian Wu,
aka Wu Jun Mei) (as they explored each other's bodies under a silk
sheet)
- the scene of tuxedo-clad ex-emperor Pu Yi (John Lone)
as an exiled, decadent, playboyish young adult dressed in Western
clothes in Tianjin in 1927, cigarette in his hand, and singing wistfully "Am
I Blue?" while leaning on a piano in a Western hotel dining
room
- the scene of secondary consort Wen Hsiu's demands
for a divorce: "I want a divorce" - passively accepted
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Singing: "Am I Blue?"
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Wen Hsiu: "I want a divorce"
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- later, his escape in the mid-1930s to Manchukuo
as a puppet ruler where his opium-addicted wife Wan Jung had an
affair with leather-clad, depraved, cross-dressing, and decadent
lesbian Japanese spy Eastern Jewel (Maggie Han); to soothe her,
Eastern Jewel massaged Wan Jung's leg and then nibbled on her toes
and smiled: "Now we're engaged"; eventually, Eastern
Jewel was driven to suicide when the Japanese surrendered, and
Wan Jung was placed in an asylum
Eastern Jewel (Maggie Han) -
Sucking Toes of Opium-Addicted Wan Jung
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- the ten years of Pu Yi's imprisonment as # 981 in
Foo Shoe - a Russian prison/re-education camp (where he couldn't
even tie his own shoes) - but where he majestically scribbled his
name on the ground - and the scene of his eventual release in 1959
- the final flash-forwarded sequence of an older Pu
Yi in 1967 (the year of his death) - as a simple Peking gardener
and also as a tourist visiting the Forbidden City where he ascended
the Dragon Throne once again and showed an amazed young boy, wearing
a red tie signifying Communist Party ties with the Pioneer Movement,
his hidden cricket box behind the throne - to prove that he was the
Emperor of China (Son of Heaven, or "The Lord of Ten Thousand
Years"); the young lad released the 60 year-old cricket (!)
from the box, and it crawled onto his red tie
Hidden Cricket Box -
Cricket Crawling on Red Communist Tie
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- the final words of a tour guide in 1987, pointing
out the golden Dragon Throne area to a group of tourists: ("This
is the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the empress were crowned.
The last Emperor to be crowned here was Aisian-Gioro Pu Yi. He
was three years old. He died in 1967"), before the credits
rolled over a freeze-frame of the throne area
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Empress Dowager Cixi's Pronouncement
Toddler Child Emperor and Billowing Yellow Curtain
Pu Yi - "The Son of Heaven"
"The Emperor's Cricket"
Pu-Yi Breast-Fed by Ar Mo (Jade Go)
Final Stoic Goodbye of Tutor 'R.J.' Johnston (Peter O'Toole)
Arranged Marriage with Wan Jung (Joan Chen)
Marital Bed
Puppet Ruler
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