Open the door. Open the door.
Open the door.
Fallen devil and fallen machine. Trouble! Nothing but trouble!
Look where you lead him! And you are an old, cruel, ignorant man.
The boy's mother is dead, and he's not even allowed to see her!
I want to go home!!
Stop it, stay where you are!!
I want to go home!!
Stop it, stay where you are!!
You fool!! Stay there!!
Chang!
Hunchback, Bigfoot!
Sir? Give me your hand, sir. Give me your hand, sir!
Can you not see?
Look at my left ear, please, sir.
Thank you, and my right. Thank you.
Would you follow my finger, please, sir-
Well it's perfectly simple, Johnson. The emperor needs spectacles.
Like Harold Lloyd!
Impossible! An emperor does not wear spectacles!
That can't be allowed!
Time have changed, Your Highnesses!
If His Majesty doesn't get spectacles, Johnston, he could lose his sight.
Your Majesty.
If the Emperor does not get spectacles, I will resign.
Unfortunately, our decision is final.
And unfortunately, what I have to say will be published in every newspaper in China.
What do you have to say, Mr, Johnston?
The Emperor has been a prisoner in his own place since the day
that he was crowned and has remained a prisoner since he abdicated.
But now he's growing up. He may wonder why he is the only person in China
who may not walk out of his own front door.
I think the Emperor is the loneliest boy on earth.
It would be conveniently sad if he becomes blind.
Blind, Mr, Johnston?
To the expense, Your Excellency. To the cost of maintaining one thousand two hundred eunuchs,
three hundred and fifty ladies-in-waiting.
and one hundred and eight-five cooks to buying one hundred.
and twenty sable furs a month and three thousand chickens a week.
To the fast that eight hundred and forty guards and employees of the household department,
plus one Lord Chamberlain, care only about one thing!
Filling their own rice bowls!
You are very good at accounts, Mr, Johnston!
The Emperor may have abdicated,
but he is still a symbol of great importance to many people.
If I did not agree with that, I would not be here.
And some of us believe that one day soon, he may be more than a symbol.
The spectacles are a detail.
What do you really want, Mr, Johnston?
Ah-Just the spectacles.
The Princess Wan Jung, Your Majesty. Seventeen years old.
Princess Wu Chang, fifteen years old.
The princess De Li, Your Majesty. And the Princess Fung Ying.
Who is this?
Princess Wen Hsiu, twelve years old.
She has got a funny face.
Notjust one wife. One empress and one secondary consort.
Two wives?
But who do you choose to be the Empress?
They chose her!
She's very old, Johnston! She's seventeen!
That's not so old, Your Majesty. What does she look like?
Old fashion!
I want a modern wife, Johnston, who speaks English and French!
And who can dance the quickstep!
Johnston!!
Sir!
I'm going to escape, Johnston.
I've got a suitcase, and a ticket to England.
I'm going to Oxford University.
Your Majesty, if you get married you will become the master of your own house.
A wedding might be a more practical way to escape.
Why did you never get married, Johnston?
The secondary consort welcomes the Empress greets the secondary consort.
You are doing everything very well.
Thank you. I rehearsed many times.
What is His Majesty thinking?
I was thinking, if I was the real emperor, I would become the ruler of China now.
And what would the Emperor do, if he could really rule?
I would change everything. Even the way we get married.
Is the Emperor against arranged marriages?
It is humiliating not to choose whom you marry!
Even I was not allowed to choose.
In another year or two. His Majesty will be taller than me.
Is it true the Emperor has a suitcase under his bed and is going to Oxford?
Will the Emperor take Wan Jung with him?
Perhaps he would like to see my face before he decides.
Yes, the Emperor would like to see the face of the Empress.
It is the Emperor who must remove the kait'ou.
I also had a tutor like Mr, Johnston.
Miss Windsor. She's American.
Miss Windsor taught me how to do the dance of the quickstep.
Does the Emperor know hoe to do the quickstep?
Will you teach me?
Leave us! Leave us!
If Your Majesty thinks it is old fashioned to make the rain and the wind with a stranger,
we can be like a modern couple, to begin with.
A modern couple?
Good night.
You must come to Oxford with me.
I like him! I'm sure I'm going to like him!
And he will grow up!
Eyes down!
Report your arrival!
Prisoner nine-eight-one reporting.
Louder!!
Prisoner nine-eight-one reporting.
Open the door!
Close the door!
Sit down!
Name?!
Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi.
Write it!
Now read that aloud!
We call them toothpaste and water tap.
The toothpaste prisoner needs to be squeezed every now and then or else he forgets, to keep confessing.
The water tap man needs one good hard twist before he starts.
But them everything comes out.
Now, you're an intelligent person. I'm sure you understand me.
Good. Then we will begin.
Why do you think you are in here, nine-eight-one?
I'm accused of being a traitor a collaborate and a counter-revolutionary.
It's not an accusation!!
You are a traitor, you are a collaborator and you're a counter-revolutionary!
Did you write this? And you call it a confession?
This is noting but a list of dates! A child's fairy tale!
What do you want me to confess?
You know what you did and what others did.
So why don't you volunteer the information?
I don't understand.
We don't tell people what to confess. We already know everything about you.
I...
Go on.
I wanted reforms.
What did you what to reform?
Everything.
Cut off my queue.
Your majesty! Please!
It's heavy!
The emperor before me was murdered because he wanted to reform the empire.
Is that not so, Mr, Johnston?
Yes, Your Majesty. Probably.
Well, let us see if they will kill me for reforming the Forbidden City.
Lord Chamberlain! I'm appointing Mr, Johnston's friend,
the poet and scholar, Chin Hsiao Hsiu, to be the new Lord Chamberlain.
I want him to supervise a detailed inventory of the imperial storerooms!
So that we can learn exactly how much has been stolen!
Can I sleep here? I'm frightened.
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.