A Passive Movie

Rating: 5/10 (25 May 2013)

The movie is visually beautiful, and tells much about how life was life for Pu-Yi, the child emperor of China who was never really an emperor but a figurehead kept under effective palace-arrest. Eunuch may make a show of worshiping him, but he never holds real power outside of the palace. His only power, when he reaches adulthood, is to banish the eunuchs from the palace for their corruption. (And this makes for the movie's best moment-they are given their "organs" in little jars, as Pu-Yi is told that "whatever their crimes, they cannot be denied their right to be buried as real men.") But even upon being taken out of the palace, when Pu-Yi is excited to finally see the world outside, he is still but a figurehead. He never is able to take an active role in the historical events around him, so the movie is essentially passive.