WHE: China

“The Last Emperor”

Day One

  1. Northeastern China – Manchuria – Year 1950
  2. Dramatically different colors signal flashbacks. Richer colors like red and yellow are used in the flashbacks, and present prison colors are black, grey, and blue.
  3. The old emperor has died, and Pu Yi is installed because he is young and easily controlled by the Empress. He is a relative of old the emperor.
  4. He had not seen his mother for seven years.
  5. Eunuchs allow Pu Je to visit with their mother because they haven’t seen each other in a long time, and to keep him happy – he now has another child to play with.
  6. Pu Yi is not allowed to leave the forbidden city, and does not know much of what is going on outside the walls of the city.

Day Two

  1. Pu Yi gets angry at his brother because he was wearing yellow, which is a royal color that only the emperor can wear. But, he learns from Pu Je that the rest of China has moved on to another form of government and that he no longer has any power outside of the Forbidden City.
  2. Pu Yi makes the eunuch drink green link in order to prove his authority and power.
  3. ArMo is taken away because the ladies in waiting and the eunuchs think he doesn’t need her anymore as he has gotten older; they think she is babying him.
  4. Johnston is his English tutor.
  5. His presence changes Pu Yi in that he is able to learn about other cultures and can be aware of the outside world.
  6. He wants to leave the city to see his mother who has passed away on an overdose of opium, and his brother Pu Je.
  7. Lord Chamberlain wants to keep the old traditional ways, but Johnston wants some of the new, such as spectacles for Pu Yi.
  8. They get him a princess to marry. He gets two wives, one empress and a secondary consort. Pu Yi wants a modern wife who can speak English and French, and dance.

Day Three

  1. The charges against Pu Yi are that he is a traitor, collaborator (with the Japanese) and a counterrevolutionary.
  2. He is forced to leave the Forbidden City by government guards – he is treated as a foreigner because he is from Manchuria. Tianjin is the only safe place he can stay.
  3. They told him that they would help him be safe but they were really trying to control him for their own purposes.
  4. Pu Yi loses a dear friend when Johnston leaves – he was trustworthy and was one of the few around him who was not using him.
  5. They want control over Manchukuo as a separate land from China, but use Pu Yi as a puppet to control.

Day Four

  1. Bodyguards have been disarmed by the Japanese colonel; the prime minister resigned because his son was assassinated.
  2. He delivers a speech about power – the Japanese and even his own people all walk out on him. This shows that he has no real power.
  3. He doesn’t want to sign a document appointing a new prime minister, but they tell him that the driver is the real father of his wife’s child. He signs the document, and anything else they want after that, because he knows he’s been defeated.
  4. The baby dies – they say that it was born dead when it really wasn’t. The empress is sent away (opium) so that they can control Pu Yi. He says, “Open the door” in a defeated voice, which is something that he has said several times throughout the movie. Although he is put into a supposed position of power, he is trapped and controlled by those around him.
  5. He was planning to escape to Tokyo so surrender to the US but gets caught by the Russians and is brought in to the camp.
  6. Pu Yi ends up confessing to everything by signing papers. He feels responsible for everything, and the governor feels it’s not right for him to take the blame for everything because he is not.
  7. He becomes a simple gardener in Beijing/Peking.
  8. Grasshopper as a symbol of Pu Yi and his captivity as emperor; the grasshopper/cricket was a reminder of his childhood self when he first became the emperor. He dies at the end of the movie.