The Last Emperor, an extravagant film that follows the life of the last emperor of China. Directed by Italian Director, Bernardo Bertolucci, this film had won nine Oscar nominations in 1987. Yet a sense of hair raising cringeworthy moments and untended laughter dotted the lecture as the film was being screened in class. How did this film rise to such a high acclaim in the Hollywood mainstream? My lecturer constantly reminds us that much of our opinion of a film is informed by our very own cultural diet and being a Singaporean Chinese, with an imbalanced cultural diet of western content and a smaller appetite for Chinese literature or film, western content seemingly dominated my childhood. Yet the western consensus of this film did not resonate with me.
I found myself struggling to accept the reality that the film was trying to portray. I had succumbed to greater catharsis while watching Toy Story (all three) than I did while watching The Last Emperor. Perhaps English speaking characters had created a discord between what I was hearing and what I was seeing. The stilted, Pan-Asian accents they carried was not enough to pull me out of my state of discord.
I was completely immersed in all 3 Toy Story movies.
Discord between spoken language and culture, here the interrogation scribe is writing in Chinese but the characters are speaking English.
Exoticism and orientalist are words I learnt upon watching this film. The idea that the most unfamiliar things can be beautiful and the novelty of the exotic seems to be heavily exploited in this movie. Everything from the costumes, the characters, and even the sets look out-of-this-world. The film had established itself as a narrative set in the realm of reality, a representation of the narrative of a real-life historical figure, Pu Yi. However, the interplay between the actuality of historical events and the falsification of invented tradition blurs the line between reality and the constructed realism within the realm of the film. The film even goes to the extent of having actual newsreels and archival footage of the atrocities of WWII.
Empress Dowager, the epitome of exotic in this film.
Brutal historical footage depicting the realities of WWII.
The very idea of exoticising a culture had made me uncomfortable. There is a sort of perverted fetish for ‘dazzling silks, brocade and embroidery’, a constant hunger and need for spectacle, with thousands of blank-faced extras backdropping the film, alluding to the idea of collectivism as well as China’s massive population. Scenes like that of the eunuch taking a whiff of the fresh excrement of the child emperor or a whole turtle submerged in a vat of steaming soup were seemingly parodies of Chinese stereotypes from the western conscience. Even the music sometimes seems overly exotic, a deliberate melding of traditional Chinese instruments with the melodic sensibilities of western classical compositions can sometimes come across as incongruous. The “Chinese exotic” is put into the limelight and displayed under the harsh spotlight of the filmmaker’s vision. The invented traditions, simply acts as a cultural display, commodifying and aestheticising the Chinese culture. Bertolucci had pulled out all the stops for this film, a Michael Bay-esque portrayal of the ancient Chinese cultures, a visual explosion of western projections of the east.
Blank faced eunuch.
“More beancurd today and no meat…”
Fancy some turtle soup?
Hundreds of extras covers the grounds of the Forbidden City.
Scene from Michael Bay’s movie, Transformer.
From Bertolucci’s own words,” I think this is one of my more Italian movies”, it is very telling that the cultural authenticity was not of utmost importance in the production of this film.
“I think it is a very Italian movie, The Last Emperor. It is very operatic, like Italian opera, and I think it one [sic] of my more Italian movies.” – Bertolucci
This film was made through the lens of a western director and the “westernising” of the cultural aspects of the story is evident in this film. In the scene where Empresses Dowager declare that Pu Yi to be the next emperor, we see all the high consorts with their faces powdered white, an unusual make up choice for Chinese royalty. One could make the connection that this was the western conscious of the portrayal of Elizabethan women, with their voluminous hair and extravagant dresses. There was also a scene of Pu Yi and his consorts playing tennis in the forbidden kingdom, the tennis court looking boldly out of place and Pu Yi dressed in “white man’s clothes”, donning a set of shirt and pants with a V-neck tennis sweater. Even Pu Yi’s spectacle is representative of the character’s eventual influence and growing admiration for all things Western. The subtext of these scenes seems to imply the replaceability of Chinese cultural elements, which could be said to be metaphoric to how Bertolucci approached his portrayal of the Chinese characters and their culture in this film. He plays with the reality of the world he has created, his western consciousness subtly shifting the portrayal of the characters and cultures depicted in this visual epic.
High consorts, Elizabethan influence
The bespectacled emperor.
Pu Yi dressed in western style clothing.
“Anything western is good…”
According to Bertolucci, China was not yet “polluted”, “suffocated and killed” by the consumerist monoculture, which was what paradoxically drove him to make this film. However, the question is whether he had done exactly that in the making of this film. I do not think that Bertolucci had ever intended to strive for cultural authenticity. He simply wanted to make a film that would celebrate the grotesque, the exotic and the beauty of an otherwise closed off nation. To present a visual spectacle and fulfil the fantasies of Western sensibilities of the East. At the core of this film is the story of a passive protagonist who had little control of his life, constantly being manipulated by the people around him. Perhaps the visual depiction of ancient China is a metaphoric representation of the film’s theme. That culture is malleable and history and people can change as different ideologies populate the human consciousness. In the film we witness Pu Yi, an emperor who lived by the strict mandate of the monarchy taking on modernity of the west, and on a bigger scale we see China taking on communism through the teachings of Chairman Mao. The idea that it is all about perspectives is reflected in this film. At the end of the day, as my lecturer mentioned, my opinions of this films are informed by my own cultural make up, my personal perspective, just like Bertolucci’s grand vision for his film.
Pu Yi makes a speech in front of an empty hall. He realises he is powerless.
The Chinese Communist Revolution depicted in The Last Emperor.
Words: 985
References:
- Chan, Kenneth. “Introduction: Remaking Chinese Cinemas, Hollywood Style.” Remade in Hollywood, 2009, 1-32. Accessed August 11, 2016. doi:10.5790/hongkong/9789622090552.003.0001.
- Stein, H. H. “Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor: Multiple Takes. Edited by Bruce H. Sklarew, Bonnie S. Kaufman, Ellen Handler Spitz, and Diane Borden. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998, 272 Pp., $19.95.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 47, no. 4 (1999): 1444-446. doi:10.1177/000306519904700430.
- Ebert, Roger. “The Last Emperor Movie Review (1987) | Roger Ebert.” All Content. 1987. Accessed September 19, 2016. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-last-emperor-1987.
- By J. Daccache (Author), B. Valeriano (Author). “Hollywood’s Representations of the Sino-Tibetan Conflict: Politics, Culture, and Globalization 2012th Edition.” Amazon.com: Hollywood’s Representations of the Sino-Tibetan Conflict: Politics, Culture, and Globalization (9781137290472): J. Daccache, B. Valeriano: Books. Accessed September 19, 2016. https://www.amazon.com/Hollywoods-Representations-Sino-Tibetan-Conflict-Globalization/dp/1137290471.