Was the last Emperor of China a victim of history or a cruel tyrant?
In short: Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 masterpiece offered an unprecedented look inside the Forbidden City, but historians argue the film sanitizes the true nature of Puyi. While the movie portrays a passive, tragic figure, the reality of his early reign involved sadistic abuse that the cinematic version largely ignores or obscures.
The Last Emperor, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, remains a landmark in cinema for being the first Western production granted permission to film within Beijing's Forbidden City. Produced by Jeremy Thomas with a $25 million budget, the film chronicles the life of Puyi from his 1908 coronation as a toddler to his eventual life as a gardener under Mao Zedong's regime. The production was massive, requiring 19,000 extras and the assistance of the People's Liberation Army to recreate the scale of imperial China.
Despite its critical acclaim—winning all nine Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture—the film faces significant criticism regarding historical accuracy. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann notes that the movie downplays Puyi’s genuine cruelty. In reality, the young emperor frequently ordered the beating of palace eunuchs for minor infractions. One documented, albeit thwarted, incident involved Puyi conspiring to feed a servant a cake filled with iron filings simply to observe the reaction. These details, which paint a far more sinister portrait of the monarch, are absent from the film's narrative.
The film also takes liberties with the timeline and events of Puyi's life. It erroneously claims the Chinese president fled during the 1924 Beijing Coup, when he was actually placed under house arrest. Furthermore, the film depicts Puyi giving testimony to Chinese interrogators, whereas in reality, these testimonies occurred at the Tokyo Trials. The film's popularity has arguably created a global misunderstanding of the emperor, as audiences are more likely to encounter Bertolucci’s romanticized version than the more brutal historical record.
The production process itself was a complex negotiation with the Chinese government. While Bertolucci was granted creative freedom, the authorities reviewed the script and requested specific changes to names. The film’s legacy is also tied to its technical history, including a controversial 2:1 crop enforced by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, which was only recently corrected in a 4K restoration that returned the film to its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Last Emperor
- Also: Wikidata — The Last Emperor · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — The Last Emperor · CC0
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