I honestly am not near reaching a definitive conclusion on my feelings toward everything that this film does and accomplishes, but even now, a few days later, I am still in awe about this film.
It is difficult to put to words what my thoughts are. This film gives us a look into history through the lens (no pun intended) of a man, but a man so unique in his position that history almost always felt a touch removed from him, even though he was both technically a key figure of history and one entirely affected by the changing tides that rocked his country.
Puyi was also on paper a representation of the millennia old institutions that ended in his reign, yet, being so young and possibly because he only knew a world within the palace where he could not contextualize the power of his family and the imperial history, he at least in the film did not seem to fully comprehend or embody the sheer weight of those institutions. In a way, Puyi was the last emperor, but what does that mean? Was he the last true emperor? When did imperial reign truly end? Did he embody the principles that would define an emperor of the Qing dynasty?
While to the public, Puyi’s life after WWII truly put him in the light of a citizen, the film did a superb job portraying him from the onset as a human being, a human being thrust from such a young age into such a complex world that would be impossible to navigate for someone who would grow up there knowing nothing else. So many reactions and scenes were very human, and so many of his longings, such as for companionship, were heartbreaking both in how it affects him as a human being not just in terms of his relationships and how he takes them (such as with his family, his mentors and the Imperial Japanese) but also in terms of how they ultimately affect his decisions as an adult (that, thus, affect his immediate surroundings and millions). The scenes of him being split from his wet nurse, his wedding night, his goodbye to Mr. Johnston, his brutal reaction to being stopped at the Forbidden Palace gate, and the scene of him being touched by people behind a white sheet are all multiple looks into this and paint a painful but colorful picture into his (character’s) psyche.
This doesn’t even go into the sheer scale of production, the performances of the supporting cast, the pacing of such a monumental film, among others.
If anything, this film successfully put into media a story of this magnitude into something that was both digestible but also complex enough to make one ponder on so many things.
My comments above noted a bit of the political landscape but also the personal canvas of the man/character Puyi. I have so many thoughts about the supporting cast and they are both so influential and reactive to Puyi, and how in turn he projects the ability to project power/influence but also how he can be influenced. The subtle obviousness of everyone’s motives shown in this film only makes bare how there were so many voices being projected toward Puyi, who was not given many opportunities to actually learn how to sift through all of these agendas and also learn, at least in the film, the weight of power and what it means to truly “rule”.
This film truly is a masterpiece in many ways and will be something I will continue to think about for a long time.
