[Women and Lust]
All court dramas cannot avoid women, and in this epic blockbuster, the status of women is self-evident. The female character that impressed me the most in the film is neither Wanrong nor Wenxiu, but Puyi's wet nurse. I think that woman is the real spiritual sustenance of Puyi who lacks maternal love, and the person he loves from his heart. It represents both motherhood and his original source of lust. As he said, she is his butterfly. The young Puyi, facing all kinds of people and changes in front of him, was at a loss, and he didn't know who to rely on. He ran wildly in the Forbidden City, chasing the distant sedan chair, and shouted the name of the only person he trusted: " Mamma." Under the wide-angle lens, in the huge Forbidden City, his figure is so small. This should be the first time Puyi feels his loss and powerlessness. He cannot protect the people he loves. Even if he is the emperor, he is just a puppet and a chess piece at the mercy of others.
Later, Wan Rong came. Puyi, who gradually accepted some new western ideas because of the influence of the British teacher, was not very happy to accept her at first, but Wanrong's words and actions on the wedding night quickly captured his heart. Wanrong is not a feudal woman, she is very smart, she can see more clearly than Puyi in many things, but she is also powerless, and gradually chooses to degenerate and indulge, smoke marijuana, have a deformed relationship with Yoshiko Kawashima, commit adultery with the driver, and finally Trapped in a state of inexorability. When we met again, she was already insane, spitting at people, tears in his eyes, but others were shouting: "Your Majesty, the plane is leaving!"
From the movie, Wenxiu was the luckiest, she bravely Getting rid of this marriage, this man, she threw her umbrella in the rain, faced the rain, and shouted, "I don't need it anymore!" At this moment, she gained the freedom she had always longed for, she was liberated. The ending of the real Wenxiu in history is also tragic, but I still think that she did not become a victim of the times like Wanrong. At least in the last few years of her life, she lived a life of poverty and hardship, but perhaps more peaceful to her heart.
I haven't watched many Bertolucci films before, and the only ones I can think of are "Dream of Paris" and "Last Tango in Paris". What amazes me the most is his erotic scenes. Here, in the bed scene of Puyi, Wanrong, and Wenxiu in the quilt, no skin was exposed. The sliding of the quilt and the low moan created a strong erotic atmosphere. Beautiful shot. This kind of skill can only be achieved by Bertolucci.
[Puyi and the Door]
Puyi in the movie is a cowardly person, an ignorant and ridiculous person, not a so-called historical sinner. He is the loneliest child in the world. Even if he is promoted to the throne of Long Live Lord, he is just a naughty child who is interested in crickets. The education he received from childhood was also deformed. I remember a long time ago that I read a historical document that Puyi could not do the simplest addition, subtraction, multiplication and division when he was a teenager. The Confucian education he received made him understand his authority. It is supreme, and some Western ideas later made him have the idea of reform, but it was equally incapable of starting. Besides, he may prefer some gentlemanly manners in the West, noble etiquette, rather than political change. The effect of the overlapping of two incompatible educations on him is that he only cares about himself. No matter what kind of education, it keeps him away from the masses and away from normal society. He has never experienced the life of the "lower class people", and of course it is impossible for him to think about them, and it is impossible to worry about the country and the people like the insightful people at that time. He has "feudal ideology", "capitalist ideology", and "bureaucratic ideology", which are exactly the "three mountains that oppress us", that is, it is impossible to have "communist ideology" and "Three Principles of the People". All revolutionaries have a class character. Such a person, like the late master Li Yu, may only feel sorry for himself in the spring and sadness, with strong narcissism. It's not that he didn't resist. The most common line in the film is "open the door". He shouted that many times, but only a group of expressionless people stood in front of him, indifferent. The door is an important image of the film, the red door, majestic and solemn in front of his eyes, unable to cross. He has always been enclosed in this city wall. In the prison of this kind of thought, the world outside a door is something he can't imagine. The door he wants to open is not the open door of a closed-off China, but only a door that belongs to him and yearns for freedom.
He can't talk about being patriotic or not patriotic at all, because in his eyes, he actually only has himself. He is self-respecting, strong, has received a Western education, and yearns for freedom. When the Japanese use him, he also wants to use the Japanese in turn. He is still dreaming of restoration. It's not that he doesn't hate the Japanese, or that he really wants to hand over his territory to others, but he is too naive and smart, and he has no real ability. All he thinks is that China has abandoned him. He, the Republic of China broke its promise and foolishly believed that he was the core of Manchukuo and that he would be the master again. When he gave an impassioned speech on the stage, the people off the field left one by one with disdain, and did not take him seriously at all.
So I say, this movie is not an epic of the ups and downs of China from the late Qing Dynasty to the Cultural Revolution, but a tragedy that only Puyi fell into the prehistoric times and was pushed and played by history. This may be too narrow, but through Puyi's life, what I see is always helplessness and loneliness.
[Absurd and
kind] Strictly speaking, Puyi is not a bad person. He may be kinder than many people. This is shown in the parade of the Cultural Revolution. , "Imperialist" "Traitor" old warden of the Red Guards said: "He is a good man!"
But this time, he still didn't understand the situation. I have always been very afraid of watching Cultural Revolution dramas. The absurdity and horror of that era would even feel creepy to people like me who have never experienced it. There have been some movies about the Cultural Revolution in China, but of course most of them were banned. However, they have become classics without any loss, and the most typical ones are "Farewell My Concubine", "Blue Kite" and "Alive". These films show the chaos of an era through a very small perspective (Peking Opera stars, families, children). Bertolucci should be regarded as one of the best foreigners in Chinese films. It can be seen that he has done a lot of homework. In fact, almost all the scenes of the Cultural Revolution used the same technique to make jokes. We always see Red Guards holding big slogans and shouting slogans, female soldiers dancing the Loyalty Dance, and "counter-revolutionaries" marching with tall hats and slogans all over their bodies. Beating, smashing and looting, there is no order and law. I have always felt that the Cultural Revolution clamoring for "destroying the four olds" is the biggest feudal act in our Chinese history. The ugliest side of the nation in China for thousands of years has completely erupted, and the blind support of "authority" that cannot be resisted , the servility in nature, the original oppressed people's malice towards those oppressors (many are innocent at all) has been expanded to the fullest.
What kind of malice is this? Mr. Wang Xiaobo once said that he thinks those who came to "discipline" him are a group of pure good people, but in his life, no one has caused him more pain than them. In short, it is actually the malice of the illiterate to the scholars, and the malice of the ordinary people to the powerful. Is this not afraid of power? Is this "fighting for the liberation of the oppressed"? I think there is nothing more terrifying than this. It is undeniable that a nation and a country really have nobility, not the nobility of blood, but the nobility of spirit and profound cultural heritage. Such people have been persecuted, and they are still a group of dazed children. People with no culture and no ideas have overthrown the intellectuals and the backbone of a nation. It is not difficult to understand why so many people commit suicide. The torture and mental humiliation are unbearable.
【End】
Pull away. Back to the movies again. At the end of the film, Puyi took out the crickets from behind his "dragon chair" to prove himself to the children, but this place is not his palace for a long time, it is just a tourist attraction that everyone can come to, and he himself is only a Historical figures introduced by the tour guide. And what history is like, it has long been scattered in the dust of the years, and it is difficult to distinguish in the chaos. No matter how powerful people are in the past, no matter how powerful and restrictive people's speech is, the day will eventually perish. After all, they will not be able to control the comments of later people. dismissive. People will have an objective evaluation of his merits and demerits. I believe that those who once thought that they could tamper with history and control the people will be hit harder by history.
The last sentence is not for Puyi.
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