The Last Emperor (1987) review — a sumptuous epic - The Times
Pu Yi’s life reads like a Kafka novel rewritten by Confucius. He was simultaneously worshipped as a deity and treated as a prisoner. Cut off from his wet nurse at a young age, he became a cruel, isolated child who took pleasure in commanding eunuchs to eat porcelain. Later, he would be expelled from his ancestral home by a warlord, smuggled into a Japanese safe house, and eventually crowned again—this time as the puppet Emperor of the Japanese-controlled state of Manchukuo. The Last Emperor
Joan Chen as the Empress Wan Jung and Ying Ruocheng as the Governor of the Prison Camp round out a cast that feels less like actors and more like conduits for a historical nightmare. The scene where the adult Pu Yi buys a flower from the "Red Guards" only to realize they are destroying his former home is a gut-wrenching convergence of his two lives. The Last Emperor (1987) review — a sumptuous
In 1924, Puyi was finally expelled from the Forbidden City by warlord forces. Desperate to reclaim his throne, he eventually collaborated with the Japanese Empire. Puyi | Biography & Facts | Britannica Later, he would be expelled from his ancestral