You're brave. Are you not frightened?
I'm excited. I don't want to escape anymore.
I want to rule.
Kiss me.
Can I stay with you as well?
Get in. Get in.
I used to play a game with the eunuchs.
Trying to guess who is who.
Now I can't see you!
Jung! Wan Jung? When Hsiu?
Come underneath the sheet with us.
Your Majesty! The storeroom's on fire, Your Majesty!
What are they carrying?
Their organs.
Whatever their crimes, they can't be deprived of the right to be buried as whole men.
Well?!
I have forgot what I was saving.
You're wasting our time!
We want to know about the Japanese.
How did your friendship with the Japanese begin?
Who introduced you?! When?!
Hmm, I think it was... it was 1924.
Parliament had been dissolved again. The president had fled.
At first, I thought it was just another a coup d'etat by just another warlord.
Only this time it was different. This time it was my turn.
Fifteen, love
Play.
Thirty, fifteen.
The rotten government of the republic is in flight!
Now we shall remove the foreign stench of the Manchurian rats who still hide in the Forbidden City.
Mr, Pu Yi and his family have been given one hour to leave the Forbidden City.
They will be escorted to the home of his father.
and remain there under guard as state prisoners until further notice!!
What are you all looking at? What are you standing there for?
You always wanted to leave the Forbidden City.
Now you're got an hour to park. So, go! Go!
I always thought I hated it here. Now, I'm afraid to leave.
Do you think they will kill me?
You must do as they say, Your majesty, while I try to reach the British embassy.
They will give you asylum there. I'm sure will.
Chang, take my car to the South gate! I want to drive His Majesty.
Your Majesty!
Please, Your Majesty!
What? But you didn't go to the British embassy, did you?
You ended up at the Japanese embassy.
The Japanese were the only people prepared to help me.
Help you for nothing?
Japan has an emperor. We're almost the same age.
I thought it was kindness.
At the same time I realized that for many Chinese I was alien.
Simply because I'm Manchurian.
There was even an anti-Manchurian league who wanted to assassinate me!
So, I want to live in Tientsin.
It was a nice provincial town with a big port.
In those days, we had a large, international settlement.
The Japanese thought it would safer for me there.
Were the Japanese paying for you in Tientsin?
Oh! No.
I had to rent a villa, The Villa Chan, and it was very expensive.
So were the bodyguards.
I spent a lot of money in Tientsin.
Did you still believe in a restoration of the imperial system?
Others did. They were later caught and exiled.
I can't remember how much jade and jewelry they made me
spend to buy the friendship of some warlord or some white Russian general.
And what else did you spend your money on?
Oh, I was never tired of buying pianos, watches, radios...
As long as they were foreign!
Of course. Anything Western was good.
Especially Wrigley's chewing gum, Bayer aspirin and cars.
While you were in Tientsin, most of China came under the control of General Chiang Kie Shek,
the so-called Nationalists, the Kuomintang.
What were your relations with them?
None.
I felt useless in Tientsin. I was twenty-one.
I dreamt of going to the West.
I became a playboy.
Am I blue. Am I blue.
Ain't these tears in my eyes telling you am I blue?
You'd be too If each plan with your girl done fell throught was a time I was her only one.
But now I'm the sad and lonely one. Bu-Bu-Booo. Bu-Bu-Booo.
Now she's gone and we're throught Lord, I'm blue.
Very good.
That's a great ship... if you're going first-class.
I'm not going anywhere.
Would you like to dance?
You're a brave man. Nobody here would have danced with me.
Why is that?
Because I'm Chiness.
Well, I'm American.
You say California. I say French Riviera.
San Francisco!
Monte Carlo!! Are we really going this time?
Who's that couple?
Oh, Henry and Elizabeth.
The Emperor of China?
The Emperor and his wise.
She's beautiful.
Yes, very.
And who are you?
I'm His Highness's other wife.
His other wife?
Number two wife.
Well, some people have all the luck.
Ladies and gentlemen!
General Chiang Kai Shek has taken Shanghai!
The Kuomintang have broken with the Reds and have knocked them for six!
The Reds are finished!
Sorry about the reception, everyone!
It would be wiser to return to the Japanese delegation now, Your Mejesty.
Your car is waiting.
Thank you, Mr, Amakasu.
The general strike in Shanghai has collapsed.
The international settlement is safe.
Troops of the Kuomintang are now in full control of the city.
And firm steps are being taken to restore order in the native areas.
Wen Hsiu, you want some gum?
I want a divorce.
I don't want to be your mistress any longer.
I thought you were my secondary consort.
In the Forbidden City, you were the emperor and I was a secondary consort.
But now you are Henry Pu Yi.
Wan Jung is your wife, Elizabeth.
And who am I? I'm nobody.
I didn't know you were so unhappy.
You can only have one wife in the West.
I want a divorce.
No one can divorce me!
I want a divorce!!
Your Ladyship!
Thank you.
I don't need it!
Wen Hsiu?
Elizabeth! Can I come in?
Don't you remember me? I'm dressed like a pilot, but I still can't fly! Not yet.
Eastern Jewel! We had dancing classes together!
Yes, just before your marriage.
Silly girl! Why do people want to get married?
Wen Hsiu has gone. She will never come back.
Is it so bad?
She was my only friend.
Well, at least now you've got your husband all to yourself!
And you've got me!
I'll be your friend.
You smoke opium?
Be wicked It's the best in Shanghai! Why are you going to Europe?
The place to go is Japan! It's more fun than anywhere!
It's modern.
How do you know we're going to Europe? It's a secret.
Oh, I know everything!
I know Chiang Kai Shek has got false teeth.
I even know his nickname, "cash my check!"
I'm a spy. I don't care who knows it.
A spy?
I work for the Japanese, special service Bureau,
and I've come to protect you.
The Japanese. They are getting closer to him everyday.
He is sending his brother to the military academy in Tokyo.
They talk to him about Manchuria all the time.
And Mr. Amakasu never says hello to me.
I don't trust the Japanese.
Of course, I'd love to be the Emperor's new secondary consort!
Eastern Jewel.
If the post is available.
The post is vacant, my dear cousin.
But you don't fit the port!
Wen Hsiu left the dog behind. Do you want it?
It's my fault. It's all my fault.
I came to see you, Your Majesty. To give you bad news.
Something terrible has happened.
The lmperial tombs of our Manchurian ancestors have been attacked and robbed
by troops of the Kuomintang Chinese soldiers.
A warlord working for Chiang Kai Shek.
The body of the Empress Dowager was hacked to pieces.
Her pearl necklace has become a wedding present from Ching Kai Shek to his new wife.
Tell me, nine-eight-one. Do you consider yourself to be Chinese?
Of course.
What is this?
Japan.
And what do you call this part of China?
The Northeast.
And what did you call it as a child?
Manchuria.
Japan invaded Manchuria on September eighteenth, 1931.
and began to set up a puppet state called Manchukuo.
Shortly afterwards, a Japanese delegation paid you a secret visit in Tientsin
to request your collaboration, which you say you refused.
Speak up!
I've already told you I have told you a hundred times.
Tell us again! Tell us two-hundred times!
I refused to collaborate.
You say you refused, but a month later, on November tenth, 1931
there your are arriving in Manchuria, or should I call it Manchukuo?!
Now, according to this so-called confession of yours, you didn't go of your own free will!
- You insist that you were kidnapped by the Japanese! /-Yes.
- And taken to Manchuria by force! /-Yes!
Sit down!
Do you remember a man called Reginald Fleming Johnston?
He was your tutor.
Yes.
And a good friend, I believe.
After twenty-eight years in China, Mr, Johnston returned to England.
He became a professor of original studies at London University.
And he wrote a book. It's called Twilight in the Forbidden City,
and it's dedicated to you.
Tientsin 1931.
I'm going to miss you, Johnston.
I shell miss you, Your Majesty.
Do you think a man can become emperor again?
Yes.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
How can we say "Good-bye"?
As we said, "Hello"
Farewell, Mr. Johnston.
Farewell, Your Majesty.
Good-bye, Mr. Johnston! We'll never forget you, Mr. Johnston.
Good-bye! Mr, Johnston. Good-bye! Good-bye!
On page four-hundred and forty-nine, Mr. Johnston writes.
The endeavor to make out that the Emperor had been kidnapped by the Japanese is wholly untrue.
He left Tientsin and went to Manchuria of his own free will.
Johnston was a liar!
What did you say? I didn't hear you.
Mr. Johnston had left before I was taken to Manchuria.
He couldn't have known what happened.
Sit down!
According to this account, you pre-packed the man's things on the morning of November ninth!
Isn't it unusual for a man who's kidnapped to have his luggage packed
by his valet the day before he's kidnapped?!
This is what you've written, isn't it?!
Who told you to pack this man's luggage?!
These two stories don't fit, do they?
It was a long time ago. Perhaps I made a mistake.
You are lying! You are both lying!!
Control yourself!
Request your choice. Request you to change your mind.
I'm the hereditary ruler of the Manchurian people.
There can be no Manchukuo without me.
Do you not see? The Japanese are using you.
I must try to use them.
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria will be condemned by the League of Nations
and by every civilized country on earth!
The Chinese Republic had broken every promise it ever made to me!
Chinese troops desecrated the tombs of my ancestors!!
And Chinese troops didn't defend Manchuria from the Japanese!
But Manchuria is still China!
China has turned it's back on me.
Please, don't go.
Manchuria is the richest frontier Asia!
Coal, oil, railways!
Millions of Chinese immigrants are going there every year!
I'm going to build my country.
Johnston was wrong, but he wasn't a liar.
There was no kidnapped!
You went to Manchuria by your own choice, because you wanted to be Emperor again!
You will rewrite your confessions from the beginning!
Manchuria 1934
To heaven.
To earth.
To the moon.
To the sun.
You're an empress again.
What I'm going to be is a pilot!
I'm going to train at a secret base near Yokohama to learn precision-bombing.
I want to bomb Shanghai.
Bomb Shanghai?
I hate China!
I hate you.
The Japanese Army High Command! Very impressive!
The Japanese Army!
Quickly!
Uh, may I introduce you? My wife, the Princess Hiro Saga.
Prime Minister Hsiao Hsiu.
Honorable Chang Ching Hui, Minister of Defense.
Monseigneur, Colonna.
The Empress and I accept with great pleasure.
Excuse me, General.
Ahh! And now Mr, Amakasu. He's the new chief of the Manchuria Motion Picture studies.
Why do you have to spoil this day? Why?
Mr. Amakasu is the most powerful man in Manchukuo.
What are you talking about?
You didn't believe I could be Emperor again, but I am.
You are blind.
Do you know what it means to be an empress? You are an empress!
Why do you not make love to me anymore?
Because you have become an opium addict.
Opium killed my mother, opium destroyed China.
You can buy opium anywhere in Manchukuo!
Shut up!
- In any shop. - Shut up!
Your brother is going to have a child.
We must have a child. We must have an heir!
Emperor Hirohito has officially invited us to Japan.
I'm going alone! You are staying here.
I would never go to Japan.
Then go to your room!
Ten thousand years to His Majesty!
Ten thousand years!
I told you, I hate you.
Only because I give you what you need.
Now we're engaged.
You forgot my toothpowder.
Oh... yes... sir.
Move him!
Nine-eight-one! Collect your things!
Upstairs!
Stop!
Your laces are undone. Do them up!
Thursday, you serve lunch.
Friday, you clean the toilet.
Saturday, you sweep the floor.
I have never been separated from my family.
You'd better get used to it!
You don't remember me, do you?
I was the Minister of Trade, in Manchukuo.
You were all in Manchukuo.
Now, I'm the cell leader.
It is important to follow the rules here.
No talking during study session!
Manchuria 1935
Where is your gun, Captain? Where are their swords?
Our weapons have been removed, Your majesty, on order of colonel Yoshioka.
Colonel Yoshioka?
Colonel Yoshioka!
What has happened here? Why has my guard been disarmed?
Yes, it's very unfortunate, Your Majesty.
There have been many changes while you were in Tokyo.
Your Majesty, may I present Masaomi Kobayakawa, the new Japanese ambassador to Manchukuo.
Why is prime Minister Hsiao Hsiu not here to receive me?
The prime Minister has resigned, Your Majesty.
His son been assassinated.
Assassinated?
By communist bandits, Your Majesty.
I must see him at once.
He refuse to see anyone, Your majesty. He has gone to a monastery, far away.
Who are you?
Chang Ching Hui, Your Majesty. Minister of Defense.
Yes, of course.
The council meeting will be at four o'clock, Your Majesty. Before the state dinner.
I'm going to have a child. The father is Manchurian.
Colonel Yoshioka, Mr. Amakasu!
I did it for you!
His Majesty forgot to sign the appointment of the new prime Minister Mr. Chang Ching Hui!
I didn't forget.
When an Englishman robs someone, Your Majesty, he becomes a gentleman.
If he robs a lot, he becomes a knight.
Do you imagine the British run their Empire as a charity?
If India has to pay for the cost of it's own occupation, so must Manchukuo.
We hope Manchukuo will have an heir. The Empress is expecting a child.
Yes, Your Majesty. We are aware of the situation.
This is the name of the father.
His name is Chang! He is your driver!
All the necessary facts have been recorded. The man will be punished.
The emperor can't allow his honor to be stained.
The Japanese are the only divine race on earth.
We will take China, Hong-Kong, Indo-China,
Siam, Malaya, Singapore, and India!
Asia belongs to us!!
There have been complaints from your cellmates.
You must learn how to urinate at night without working them all up!
The way to do it's to urinate against the side of the bucket, not into the middle!
Yes, comrade.
You still think I'm your servant, don't you?
We are all pretending. You are just pretending you have changed.
Shut up! The party will teach us to be a new man!!
We're working for a new China!!
You worked in Amakasu's private office.
You are still the same people! People don't change.
Guard!! Guard!!
Guard!!
And I let it happen.
I let it happen.
The second edict, Your Majesty. Japanese will be the official language in Manchukuo schools.
Your Majesty!
The baby was born dead, Your Majesty.
How is the Empress?
It would be better if she gone to a clinic, somewhere warm.
She's already left, Your Majesty.
Open the door.
With Manchukuo now firmly in their grasp, the Japanese soon controlled most of North China.
By 1937 they were ready to strike South, at the heart of the country.
The attack on Shanghai was one of the first civilian bombing raids in history.
It left thousands homeless, thousands dead.
Three months later, Japanese armies were besieging the provisional capital at Nanking.
And when the city fell, the atrocities began.
Trying to terrorize the rest of China,
more than two hundred thousands of the civilians exacuted.
The world watched in horror, but no help was given.
On December the seventh, 1941 Japan attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.
There was no warning.
Manchukuo, the Japanese bastion in North China, was still ruled by the puppet emperor, Pu Yi.
But behind the facade of triumph, was a country enslaved.
Nine days after the bomb at Hiroshima, on August the fifteenth 1945.
Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan.
It was the first time his voice had ever been heard on radio.
You must get to Tokyo, Your majesty.
You must surrender to the Americans, not the Russians.
The communists will kill everyone!
The Empress has returned.
Your Majesty, please.
Your Majesty!
Hurry! There is no room on the plane, Your Majesty!
The women aren't in danger! We must hurry!!
Your Majesty! Your Majesty is leaving now!
Now!
The Russians!
Perhaps you think we are here to teach men to lie in a new way.
Why did you sign every accusation made against you?
I didn't step you from killing yourself to see you like this...
Someone who signs anything to please his enemies, to please me!
You know about a lot of things in Manchukuo. Even the secret agreements.
But you couldn't possibly have known about the Japanese biological warfare experiments in Harbin!
Could you?! So why did you sign these papers?
I was responsible for everything.
Your are responsible for what you do!
All your life you thought you were better than everyone else.
Now you think you are the worst of all!
Why can you not leave me alone?
You save my life to make me a puppet in your own play.
You saved me because I'm useful to you.
Is that so terrible, to be useful?
Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi!
By order of the supreme people's count,
the war criminal Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, male, fifty-three years old,
of the Manchu nationality, and from Peking,
has now served ten years detention!
As a result of remolding thought labor and ideological education during his captivity,
he has shown that he has genuinely reformed!
In accordance with clause one of the Special Pardon Order, he is therefore to be released!
You see, I will end up living in prison longer than you.
Peking 1967
The Red Guards!
They are so young.
It's dangerous.
Look, over there. Pu Chien, look!
It's the Governor of our prison!
It can't be!
It is! I'm sure it is!
Be careful! Come back!
Comrade. This must be a mistake! I know this man! He is a good man.
Who are you?
I'm a gardener.
Join us, comrade, or fuck off!
But what has he done?
He has been accused.
Accused of what?
Confess your crimes!!
I have nothing to confess.
Kowtow to Chairman Mao!
Confess your crimes!!
I have nothing to confess.
Kowtow!
Confess your crimes!!
Wait!
He is teacher! He is a good teacher!
- You! Get out of here! - You can't do this to him!
- Move! You want to be him?! - You are wrong!! He is s good teacher!
Stop! You are not allowed in here!
Who are you?
I live here! I'm the son of the guardian!
Ah, Well, I used to live here, too.
That is where I sat.
Who are you?
I was the Emperor of China.
Prove it!
This is the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the empress were crowned.
The last Emperor to be crowned here was Aisian-Gioro Pu Yi.
He was three years old. He died in 1967.