An unmitigated epic

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2018)

The movie is an unmitigated epic which documents the most twisted 60 years in China from 1910s to 1960s.
The film is as heavy as that narrated history. Pu Yi, as the protagonist of the story, noble as the emperor, wasn't able to turn the tide. He was not the official ruler of the country since 1911, however, the mind of hundreds millions of the people living under the monarchy system for thousands years still believe in so called "emperor. Satirically, on the contrary, all his life was just a tool, used by the republic, by the invaders, finally deserted and left rotten in a cell. Trough his struggling we see the country's misery. As he crowned as a child knowing nothing about governing, the country is on the brink of overturn. As he sat titularly in the forbidden city, the country is wavering in the grasps of warlords. As he became a playboy, the so called "republic government" is nothing more that a puppet of world powers. When he thoughts he could eventually make a change, what he did is nothing but betrayed his country. Finally he walked out of the prison. What he saw was total craziness.
However the movie does not judge whether he is right or wrong. It contains no embellishment of a hero. That makes it an epic, not a story.