For me, the Last Emperor was a very, very good movie. By the end, I actually found myself feeling bad for Puyi. This person, who has only known one way of life, who people thought was an actual descendent of the gods, is now an average citizen. He is not the Emperor of China, or of Manchuria; but simply citizen Puyi of the People's Republic of China. China used to be his country, and now he plays a very small, insignificant role within it.
More shocking for me, however, is the movie's ability to show how frightening Mao's Culture Revolution really was. The goal of the revolution, from my limited understanding, was to completely redesign China, and how China thinks as a country. It shook the core of China's hierarchy, turned it on it's head, and worked to erase thousands of years of history in an attempt to reform China in it's entirety. This system, that worked to reinvent the country through it's people, washed over Puyi. Mao's government forced him to change completely. He was a citizen, no longer an Emperor. Mao's revolution stopped for no one, it took the entire country by storm and the Emperor was no exception. It was the huge positive statement for the revolution, because if the Emperor could be reformed, then anyone could.
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