A fascinating study into an individual's view of history, when that person's view is limited and when the history revolves around that character. The movie is clearly attempting to stay as objective about politics and history as it possibly can (with the gratuitous shot at the conservative, Chiang Kai Chek, being in it for the money), and it gets around the difficult contradictions and ambiguities by letting the main character simply be himself - naive, sad, self-contradictory, petty alternating with a desire for grand accomplishments, weakness alternating with cruelty, regret together with self-justification. The last emperor is a great study in narcicissm. Truth and its effects seems to be the theme, or at least one theme. Other themes there are, but they are subtly played. Sympathy is our first reaction, but upon reflection, comes realization that the sympathetic character that has been created is really a self-absorbed victim of being totally spoiled and pampered all his life.
With truth comes freedom, as we see in the case of the 2nd consort to the emperor, who simply walks away from the prison her life has become, wearing only the clothes on her back. When a servant attempts to give her an umbrella for the rain, she hands it back, saying twice and with a big smile on her face: "I don't need it." She experiences what the rich young ruler would have experienced had he listened to Christ. The wealth and grandeur of being attached to an ex-emperor was utterly empty and destructive. No purpose in life but to support a luxurious lifestyle which had been built originally from rulership and service for China became utterly vain.
To be continued.
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