The timeline at the beginning of the film is locked after the founding of the People's Republic of China, when Puyi, the puppet emperor of the Qing Dynasty abolished the puppet Manchukuo, was taken back to China from the Soviet Union as a war criminal. Frustrated, he planned to kill himself in the toilet, but was accidentally found and rescued, so the flashback method of flashback explained his ups and downs in his life.
The use of light and shadow in the whole film can be regarded as a textbook level. Like the treatment of the dual time-space structure of most films, the director uses a variety of tones to distinguish multiple time nodes, and different lighting arrangements also confirm the inner changes of the characters at different times. Puyi's special growth trajectory and life choices are mysterious and full of charm against the backdrop of light, shadow and color.
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