How hard is it to believe this is all based on…actual events?
The individual – sometimes even the mightiest – can get swept up in human history like a grain of sand in a windstorm. Begetting still the arrogance of those trying to ascertain [or even establish] what it all means. But then, as Bob Dylan once reminded us, “I guess that’s better left unsaid”.
And yet another narrative from Mr. Dylan leaps to mind: “He’s only a pawn in their game”.
In the course of human events, there are narratives so overwhelming that, once you are caught up in them [at a young enough age], acting them out becomes like breathing. Especially with no one around to suggest an alternative. Then R.J. Johnston arrives with his own rendition of the aristocrat. The English gentleman. But there will be many more to come. Both foreign and domestic.
Again, only narratives and those with the capacity to enforce one over the others prevail.
IMDb
“The first feature film granted permission by the Chinese government to be filmed in the Forbidden City. This was the first western film made in and about the country to be produced with full Chinese government cooperation since 1949.”
“The Buddhist lamas who appear in the film could not be touched by women, so extra male wardrobe helpers were hired to dress them.”
“Two thousand soldiers had the front of their heads shaved in order to play Qing banner men. They were persuaded to do so by their officers who convinced them that it showed friendship to the Italians and British. They were given a bonus of $3.50.”
“1,100 schoolchildren were brought in to play Red Guards who composed the Cultural Revolution march (1967). Bernardo Bertolucci had problems instilling the right amount of anger in them, as none of them knew of the attitudes of the Cultural Revolution.”
“Bernardo Bertolucci talked at length with Sean Connery, regarding the role of Reginald Johnston. Connery ended up convincing the director not to cast him.”
Wiki
“In Japan, the Shochiku Fuji Company edited out a thirty-second sequence from The Last Emperor depicting the Rape of Nanjing before distributing it to Japanese theatres, without Bertolucci’s consent. The Rape of Nanjing — in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were massacred by the Imperial Japanese Army — is an event disputed by the Japanese government, and a diplomatic stumbling block with China. Bertolucci was furious at Shochiku Fuji’s interference with his film, calling it ‘revolting’. The company quickly restored the scene, blaming ‘confusion and misunderstanding’ for the edit while opining that the Rape sequence was ‘too sensational’ for Japanese audiences.”
THE LAST EMPEROR:
Written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
[b]The Governor: [setting a recurring theme of imprisonment throughout the film] Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!..Open the door!
…
Birth Mother: Ar Mo, I am giving you my Son. My son is your son.
…
Attendent:You are the Lord of Ten Thousand Years.
Puyi: I am the Son of Heaven! I am the Son of Heaven![/b]
Well, sort of.
[b]Brother: Is it true that you can do whatever you want?
Puyi: Of course I can. If I am naughty someone else is punished. One of them.
…
Puyi: Why are you wearing that? You are not allowed to wear yellow. Only the Emperor can wear that yellow. Take it off.
Brother: No.
Puyi: Take it off!
Brother: No, and you’re not the Emperor any more. There is a new Emperor now. He has cut off his queue. And instead of a camel he has got a car.
Puyi: What did you say?
Brother: You’re not the Emperor. You’re not the Emperor any more.
Puyi: How dare you. [to his attendent] Am I the Emperor or not?
Attendent: Your Majesty will always be the Emperor
Puyi: You see.
Brother: Prove it.
Puyi [to attendent]: Drink it. Go on, drink the green ink.
…
Puyi: Why is this wall here, Lord Chamberlain?
Lord Chamberlain: It is just a wall, Your Majesty. Nothing has changed here.
Puyi: You are lying. High Tutor, am I still the Emporor?
High Tutor: You will always be the Emperor inside the Forbidden City. But not outside.
…
Puyi: You are all liars!!
…
Governnor: This is the detention centre of the Fushun Bureau of Public Security and I am the Governer. During the war this was a Japanese prison. Many of you may remember it because you worked with the Japanese. You were responsible for building it and you filled it with innocent people How could this happen? Why did you betray your country? What turned you into war criminals? We believe that men are born good. We believe that the only way to change is to discover the truth and look at it in the face. That is why you are here. You will begin by writing the story of your lives and by confessing your crimes. Your salvation will lie entirely in the attitude you take. I advise you to be frank and sincere. Otherwise things can still go very badly for you.[/b]
Sound familiar?
Johnston: Words are important.
Puyi, at 15: Why are words important?
Johnston: If you cannot say what you mean, your majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says.
Oh boy…
[b]Puyi: Are you a gentleman?
Johnston: I would like to be a gentleman, Your Majesty. I try to be.
Puyi: I am not a gentleman. I’m not allowed to say what I mean. They are always telling me what to say.
…
Puyi [looking at a magazine cover]: Who is this George Washington?
Johnston: A famous American, Your Majesty. A revolutionary General, the first American President.
Puyi: Ah, like Mr Lenin in Russia?
Johnston: Not quiet.
…
Puyi: Is it true, Mr. Johnston, that many people out there have had their heads cut off?
Johnston: It is true, your majesty. Many heads have been chopped off. It does stop them thinking
…
Communist official: The toothpaste prisoner needs to be squeezed every now and then or else he forgets to keep confessing. The water tap prisoner needs just one good hard twist before he starts…but then everything comes out. Now you’re an intelligent person. I’m sure you understand me?
…
Communist official: Why do you think you’re in here?
Puyi: I am accused of being a traitor, a collaborator and a counter revolutionary.
Communist official [furious] IT IS NOT AN ACCUSATION! YOU ARE A TRAITOR! YOU ARE A COLLABORATOR! YOU ARE A COUNTER REVOLUTIONARY!
…
Puyi: What do you want me to confess?
Official: You know what you did and what others did. So why don’t you volunteer the information?
Puyi: I do not understand.
Official: We don’t tell people what to confess. We already know everything about you.
Puyi: I…I wanted reforms.
Official: What did you want to…reform?
Puyi: Everything.
…
The High Tutor: There has been Eunuchs in the Forbidden City for eight hundred years. There are still more than a thousand of them.
Puyi: I decided to expel them all. I had to ask for Republican troops to help me.
Wife: What are they carrying?
High Tutor: Their organs. Whatever their crimes they cannot be deprived of the right to be buried as whole men.
…
The Governor: How did your friendship with the Japanese begin? Who introduced you? When?
Puyi: I think it was…it was 1924. Parliament had been dissolved again. The President had fled. At first I thought it was just another coup d’etat by just another warlord. Only this time it was different. This time it was my turn.
…
Puyi: What are you all looking at? What are you standing there for? You always wanted to leave the Forbidden City. Now you have got an hour to pack. So go!
…
Puyi: I always thought I hated it here. But now I am afraid to leave.
…
Communist official: But you didn’t go to the British Embassy, did you? You ended up at the Japanese Embassy.
Puyi: The Japanese were the only people prepared to help me.
Official: Help you for nothing?
Puyi: Japan has an Emperor. We are almost the same age. I thought it was kindness. The same time I realized that for many Chinese I was an alien. Simply because I am Manchurian.
…
The Governor: While you were in Tientsin most of China came under the control of General Chiang Kai Shek the so-called Nationalists…the Kuomintang. What were your relations with them?
Puyi: None. I felt useless in Tientsin. I was twenty-one. I dreamt of going to the West. I became a playboy.
…
Yoshiko: You smoke opium? Be wicked. It’s the best in Shanghai. Why are you going to Europe? The place to go is Japan. It’s more fun than anywhere. It’s modern.
Wanrong: How do you know we are going to Europe? It is a secret.
Yoshiko: Oh, I know everything. I know Chiang Kai Shek has got false teeth. I even know his nickname, “Cash-my-check”. I’m a spy. And I don’t care who knows it.
…
High Tutor: The Japanese invasion of Manchuria will be condemned by the League of Nations and by every civilised country on Earth.
Puyi: The Chinese Republic has broken every promise it ever made to me. Chinese troops desecrated the tombs of my ancestors. And Chinese troops did not defend Manchuria from the Japanese.
High Tutor: But Manchuria is still China.
Puyi: China has turned its back on me![/b]
This is how it plays out. There is the personal. There is the political. And then they become hopelessly intertwined in dasein.
[b]Wanrong [bursting at the seams with irony]: Ten thousand years to His Majesty the Emperor!
…
Japanese official [hammering in the final nail]: The Japanese are the only divine race on our earth. We will take China, Hong Kong, Indo-China, Siam, Malaya. Singapore and India. Asia belongs to us!
…
The Governor: There have been complaints from your cell mates. You must learn how to urinate at night without waking them all up. The way to do it is to urinate against the side of the bucket not into the middle.
Puyi: Yes, comrade.
…
Puyi: You are all pretending. You are just pretending you have changed.
Fellow prisoner: The party teaches us to be new men. We are working for a new China.
Puyi: You are still the same people. People do not change.
…
Newsreel announcer: The attack on Shanghai was one of the first civilian bombing raids in history. It left thousands homeless. Thousands dead. Three months later Japanese armies were besieging the provisional capital at Nanking and when the city fell the atrocities began. Trying to terrorise the rest of China into surrender the Japanese high command ordered a massacre. More than two hundred thousand civilians were systematically executed. The world watched in horror but no help was given…Manchukuo the Japanese bustion in North China was still ruled by the puppet Emperor Puyi. But behind the facade of triumph was a country enslaved. A country where Japanese experiments in biological warfare were carried out on live human beings. A country where opium production became the easiest way to finance the war/ Millions of people were deliberately turned into drug addicts.
…
The Governor: [Confronting Puyi in the prison gardens, where Puyi works alone] Perhaps you think we’re here to teach men to lie in a new way?
The Governor: [Puyi continues working as if trying to ignore the Governor] Why did you sign every accusation made against you? I didn’t stop you from killing yourself to see you like this! Someone who will sign anything to please his enemies…to please me!
The Governor: [Puyi continues working] You knew about a lot of things in Manchukuo…even the secret agreements. But you couldn’t possibly have known about the Japanese biological warfare experiments in Harbin! Could you? So why did you sign these papers?
Puyi: I was responsible for everything.
The Governor: You are responsible for what you do! All your life you thought you were better than everyone else. Now you think you’re the worst of all!
Puyi: [sighs] Why can you not leave me alone? You saved my life to make me a puppet in your own play. You saved me because I am useful to you.
The Governor: Is that so terrible? To be useful?
…
The Governor: By order of the Supreme People’s Court the War Criminal Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, male, fifty-three years old of the Manchu nationality and from Peking, has now served 10 years detention. As a result of remoulding through labour and ideological education during his captivity he has shown that he has genuinely reformed. In accordance with Clause One of the Special Pardon Order he is therefore to be released.
…
Puyi [watching a student march during the Cultural Revolution]: Pu Chieh, look. It is the Governor of our prison. Comrade. This must be a mistake, I know this man. He is a good man. Protest leader: Who are you?
Puyi: I am a gardener.
Protest leader: Join us comrade, or fuck off.
Puyi: But what has he done?
Protest leader: He’s been accused.
Puyi: Accused of what?
Protest leader: Emperor’s lackey. Revisionist element. Rotten rightest [to the Governor] Confess your crimes.
Governor: I have nothing to confess.
Protest leader: Kowtow to Chairman Mao. Confess your crimes.
Governor: I have nothing to confess. I have nothing to confess.
Puyi: Wait. He is a teacher. He is a good teacher. You cannot do this to him.[/b]
If it wasn’t all so serious it could come straight out of the theatre of the absurd.