뉴스레터

hen the film "The Last Emperor" directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1987 was released in South Korea, film critics and the audience mostly assigned positive reviews and ratings toward it. That was probably because the film had already won several of the prestigious Academy Awards in addition to the historicity and excellent attractions the film itself featured. The film also gave the impression that its director tried to present a relatively balanced depiction of Puyi's life compared to that in the autobiography by Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, which the director had consulted as well to make the film.

On the other hand, some criticized the film either for distorting history or for directing it from the viewpoint of orientalism. That may have been because the film was funded by the West and directed with the American and European audience in mind. For instance, Puyi's tutor Reginald Johnston is featured as a rational, civilized figure as opposed to scenes that mostly picture the figures and traditions of the Qing dynasty in a bizarre, incomprehensible light.

The Last Emperor's Life Through Four Different Regimes

This film about Puyi's life features a man who went through four different regimes from the Qing dynasty and colonial Manchukuo to the Republic of China and the socialistic People's Republic of China. To Puyi, the Qing dynasty was a part of his immature years, while the Republic of China was a target of outrage during his youth, especially when he vowed to avenge the theft of the Qing dynasty's imperial tombs upon hearing about the incident. Meanwhile, the People's Republic of China branded him as a war criminal and later honored him as a rehabilitated citizen, whereas Manchukuo simultaneously gave him both the honor as emperor and disgrace as Japan's puppet. The film director is known to have paid particular attention to showing the contrasting periods in Puyi's life using several different colors: yellow for his days as a Qing emperor, red for Puyi's life in general, and white for the maturity he acquired after experiencing a sense of liberation during imprisonment.

The most historically significant regime Puyi experienced seems to be Manchukuo. Thanks to its upfront approach toward the regime, the film allows the audience to develop a further interest in Manchukuo. To most people, Manchukuo is merely a puppet regime of Japan. As in the film, Manchukuo's emperor and government officials have all been handled the same way Japanese war criminals were after the end of the Second World War. Even for Korea, Manchukuo was both a new heaven for the poor and target to be cursed by those who participated in independence movements in the Manchuria. Recently, some are evaluating Manchukuo to have been a new form of a modern nation, but it is still far more considered as Japan's puppet regime.

Nevertheless, as the film repeatedly portrays, Manchurians including Puyi still desired to form an independent state of their own. Considering that ethnic groups establishing individual nation-states of their own was indeed a major trend in modern times, Puyi's aspirations should also be understood through that trend. So, rather than simply defining Manchukuo as a puppet regime of Japan, it would be more useful in terms of gaining a better historical understanding to analyze how well the ideals of Puyi or the Manchurians were reflected in developments surrounding Puyi in modern history.

Puyi's Dream of Restoring the Qing Dynasty Through Manchukuo

To picture Puyi's life in prison as realistically as possible, the film's director made countless visits to collect testimonies from people who had been present at the prison with Puyi such as the prison's warden. By introducing a scene that shows Puyi's attempt at suicide, the director attempted to describe in detail the fear Puyi felt while in Fushun Prison as a political prisoner after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Portraying Chinese communists also proved to be a major part of the film, especially through the many scenes in which government authorities relentlessly interrogate Puyi. Another meaningful choice made was to open the film with a flashback that features the Fushun train station. The communist regime's main purpose for interrogating Puyi was to determine whether the founding of Manchukuo was done through cooperation with Japan or through coercion. The interrogator is portrayed almost like a demon, which must be a reflection of what the People's Republic of China seemed like to Puyi at first.

Through his autobiography, Puyi actually reveals his hope to restore the Qing dynasty, albeit with help from Japan. Yet, he never openly revealed such internal desires while being interrogated. Out of fear that such confessions would only add to charges against him, he constantly lied that Japan had forced him to accede to the throne as emperor of Manchukuo. What Chinese authorities had been seeking through interrogations was an admission that Manchuria was not the territory of Manchurians, but the Chinese, which made Puyi's crime about attempting to take a piece of Chinese territory and handing it over to the Japanese. Since the interrogations were concluded with Puyi's confession to all charges against him, they may superficially be considered a success regardless of what interrogation methods had actually been employed. This sort of depiction almost seems as if the director placed more emphasis on the aspect of coercing someone into a confession rather than defending the Chinese government's view toward Manchukuo.

Meeting the warden Kim Won in prison must have been a glimmer of hope for Puyi under such unfavorable circumstances. Born in Bonghwa of Korea's North Gyeongsang province, Kim Won fled by night to Manchuria with his parents to escape destitution and later joined in communist movements as a member of the Eighth Route Army under the Chinese Communist Party's command. It was Kim who inspired Puyi to successfully complete rehabilitation and return to society. In particular, Kim Won encouraged Puyi to write his autobiography, which caused Kim Won to later be accused of assisting a traitor by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution and be exposed to public shame from being dragged along the streets. These developments that appear in the film leaves the audience under the suspicion that Puyi's rehabilitation had in fact been a fabrication conceived by the Chinese government.

Using contrasting images of civility and bizarreness to present a juxtaposition of East and West as in "The Last Emperor" may not be a cinematic interpretation of history everyone can agree with. Despite such shortcomings, the film is more than sufficient for the purpose of gaining a grasp on China's modern history through the story of Puyi.