Rating: 3.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2024 | 39/52 | Genre: History
I think the emperor is the loneliest boy on earth.
Manchuria 1950, the Chinese-Russian border Puyi arrives on a train as a political prisoner and war criminal in a crowd of other prisoners at Fushun Prison. Silently, they enter the main hall, where artists paint a mural depicting the Red Army’s victory and the establishment of the PCR. A small group bows at Puyi, the former Emperor of China. Puyi steps away to the bathroom. A guard, noticing his absence, looks for him. In the bathroom, Puyi attempts suicide. The guard bangs at the door.
Peking 1908 A military escort enters the gates of the Forbidden City. The toddler Puyi clings to his mother. The Empress Dowager Cixi has summoned Puyi. His mother hands him off to his wet nurse, Ar Mo, who accompanies him to the Great Within. There, the Empress tells Puyi that the emperor has died, she is dying, and Puyi will be the next emperor. The impatient toddler tolerates his coronation, wishing to return home. “Not today,” they tell him.
The film follows the story from these two points forward, giving us Puyi’s life from infancy to imprisonment and political rehabilitation. It is about Puyi’s slow decline from emperor to human being.
What a visual powerhouse—Vittorio Storaro doesn’t seem to miss. It’s a bummer that the movie leaves the Forbidden City halfway through. The rest of it has moments — the return to Manchuria is pretty stellar — but nothing matches the city’s splendor.
The film wishes to create an othering in depicting the royal decorum. It treats Peter O’Toole’s Reginal Johnston as a “voice of reason.” Regardless of the historical accuracy, it plays into Western Orientalism.
The film does not, however, chase historical accuracy. It made several adjustments to make Puyi a more sympathetic protagonist and to allow Burtolucci his horniness quota. The Chinese government had to clear the screenplay, but producer Jeremy Thomas claims they didn’t ask for much.
That said, the elaborate costuming and hair were historically correct.
To return to Puyi, he isn’t much of a character in this movie, especially as an adult. He makes abrupt choices that I could never say were in or out of character because I never felt I knew him well enough to make that assessment. In that way, it eschews the typical biopic. But it also avoids a coherent throughline beyond Puyi’s presence.
Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su brought their A-game with this score. David Byrne also showed up.
If I found out Joan Chen would be my wife, I would be agog too.