The Last Emperor, historical epic film, released in 1987, that was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and told the story of Puyi (Pu Yi in the film), the last emperor of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in China. The movie garnered nine Academy Awards, including that for best picture.

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The movie begins in 1950 with the arrival of Pu Yi (played by John Lone) at a prison in China, where he attempts suicide but is revived by the prison governor (Ruocheng Ying). The story then unfolds as a series of flashbacks intercut with scenes of Pu Yi’s reeducation. In 1908, at the age of three, Pu Yi (Richard Vuu) is summoned to the Forbidden City by the Empress Dowager (Lisa Lu), who declares him emperor. The confused child undergoes a coronation ceremony and is introduced to the hundreds of palace eunuchs and maids who are to wait upon him. The only familiar figure is his nurse, Ar Mo (Jade Go). By the time Pu Yi is eight years old (now played by Tsou Tijger), he has gotten used to court life. His family arrives, and, though he no longer remembers them, his seven-year-old brother, Pu Chieh (Henry Kyi), remains in the Forbidden City to be a playmate and companion to the emperor. After a revolution overthrows the Qing dynasty, Pu Yi learns that he is the emperor only of the Forbidden City; outside of those walls, China is now a republic. In 1919 the Scotsman Reginald F. Johnston (Peter O’Toole) becomes the tutor of Pu Yi (Tao Wu), and he provides Pu Yi with information about the world outside the Forbidden City. He gives his charge a bicycle, on which Pu Yi attempts to escape the grounds. In 1922 a wife, Wan Jung (Joan Chen), is chosen for Pu Yi (now played by Lone), and he also takes a secondary wife, Wen Hsiu (Jun Wu).

In 1924 Pu Yi and all the other occupants are ordered to leave the Forbidden City. He and his wives take up residence in the Japanese-occupied area within Tianjin, where they enjoy a relaxed and cosmopolitan lifestyle. Pu Yi becomes known as Henry and Wan Jung as Elizabeth. Sometime after Johnston returns to the West, Pu Yi travels to the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria, and in 1934 he is installed as emperor of that state, though he is just a pawn of Japan. After a trip to Tokyo, Pu Yi is required to sign an edict appointing a new prime minister, and Wan Jung is sent away. In 1945, after the fall of Japan in World War II, Pu Yi is captured by Russian troops. Intercut with the flashbacks, the prisoner Pu Yi learns for the first time in his life to take care of his own personal needs, and he renounces his cooperation with the Japanese. He is released in 1959 and becomes a gardener. Later, in 1967 during the Cultural Revolution, he sees a parade in which the former prison governor who helped him with his rehabilitation is being humiliated as an enemy of the revolution. In the final scenes, Pu Yi visits the Forbidden City as a tourist, and 20 years later a tour guide leads American tourists into the palace’s throne room.

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The Last Emperor was based on Puyi’s autobiography, From Emperor to Citizen (published in English in 1964–65). It was the first feature film permitted to be filmed inside the Forbidden City. The movie was well received by critics in spite of its having extremely limited distribution in the United States prior to winning the Academy Awards.

Production notes and credits

• Studios: Recorded Picture Company, Hemdale, Yanco Films Limited, TAO Film, Screenframe, and AAA Soprofilms
• Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
• Writers: Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci (screenplay)
• Music: David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Cong Su
• Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro

Cast

• John Lone (Pu Yi as an adult)
• Joan Chen (Wan Jung)
• Peter O’Toole (Reginald Johnston)
• Ruocheng Ying (prison governor)
• Ryuichi Sakamoto (Amakasu)
• Maggie Han (Eastern Jewel)
• Vivian Wu (Wen Hsiu)

Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)

• Picture*
• Art direction*
• Cinematography*
• Costume design*
• Direction*
• Editing*
• Music*
• Sound*
• Writing*

Second Sino-Japanese War, (1937–45), conflict that broke out when China began a full-scale resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory (which had begun in 1931). The war, which remained undeclared until December 9, 1941, may be divided into three phases: a period of rapid Japanese advance until the end of 1938, a period of virtual stalemate until 1944, and the final period when Allied counterattacks, principally in the Pacific and on Japan’s home islands, brought about Japan’s surrender.

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The establishment of Manchukuo and the creation of the United Front

For much of the early 20th century, Japan had exercised effective control of Manchuria, initially through the terms of the Twenty-one Demands (1915) and later through its support of Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin. However, a serious conflict was developing, and the Chinese in Manchuria were especially restive under the privileges held by the Japanese. Chinese citizens formed the vast majority of the population, and the legal title of the region was held by China. Yet Japan controlled much of south Manchuria through its railways and its leasehold on the Liaodong Peninsula and in other ways that compromised Chinese sovereignty.

In an attempt to assert their independence, the Chinese began building a series of railroads that would in part encircle the Japanese lines and terminate at Huludao, a port which the Chinese were developing. Zhang Xueliang, Zhang Zuolin’s son and the ruler of Manchuria after his father’s murder by Japanese officers in 1928, was increasingly disposed to ally himself with the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) and its desire to rid China of foreign control. In the summer of 1931 the friction expressed itself in minor incidents. Those in control of the main body of Japanese forces in Manchuria believed that the time had passed for temporizing and compromise. On the night of September 18–19, 1931, alleging that Chinese had blown up part of the track of the South Manchuria railway near the city, the Japanese seized Mukden (Shenyang). Facing little resistance from Nationalist forces, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932 and installed the deposed Qing emperor Puyi as its titular head. Japan soon demonstrated that it was not content with confining its control of China to regions north of the Great Wall, and in the spring of 1934 a pronouncement from Tokyo in effect declared all China to be a Japanese preserve in which no power could take important action without its consent.

In 1935 the Japanese forced the withdrawal from Hebei and Chahar (now part of Inner Mongolia) of any officials and armed forces that might prove unfriendly to Japan. These territories passed partly into Japanese control, and Suiyuan, Shansi (Shanxi), and Shantung (Shandong) were threatened. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek did not offer open opposition, preferring instead to pursue his campaign against Chinese communist forces. In December 1936, in what came to be known as the Xi’an Incident, Chiang was seized by forces under the command of his own generals and compelled to ally with the communists in a United Front against Japan.

What proved to be a life and death struggle soon broke out between China and Japan. The opening engagement was a minor clash between Chinese and Japanese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge, not far from Peiping (Beijing) on July 7, 1937. The conflict quickly ceased to be localized. The Japanese came to feel that since Chiang and the Nationalist government would not yield to their wishes they must be eliminated. To the Japanese, the rising tide of nationalism in China—directed, as much of it was, against them—had become intolerable.

Initial Japanese conquests

By July 1937 practically all Chinese regional military and political groups had rallied to support the Nationalist government and Chiang Kai-shek in their decision to oppose Japan by every means. The communists, who had urged a united front against Japan since 1935, pledged their support and put their armies nominally under command of the government.

From a strictly military point of view, however, Japan was so much better prepared than China that its armies achieved rapid initial success. Within the course of two years Japan obtained possession of most of the ports, the majority of the chief cities as far west as Hankow (Hankou), and the larger part of the railways. Peiping and Tientsin (Tianjin) were occupied in July 1937. After fierce fighting, the Chinese armies were driven out of the Shanghai area by the middle of November 1937. Nanking (Nanjing), the Nationalist capital, fell in mid-December 1937, and the liquidation of that city and its inhabitants became known as the Nanjing Massacre. As many as 300,000 Chinese civilians and surrendered troops were killed. Moreover, tens of thousands of women were raped on the orders of Japanese commander Matsui Iwane. The capital was moved west to Hankow. The Japanese followed and took that city in October 1938. In the same month, the Chinese lost Canton (Guangzhou). The Japanese pressed northward and westward from Peiping along the railway lines into Shansi and Inner Mongolia. They dominated Shantung and took possession of the Peiping-Hankow, Tientsin-P’u-k’ou, and Lung-hai railways and of the rail lines in the lower part of the Yangtze valley. They had complete command of the sea. Always superior in the air, before many months they had all but destroyed the Chinese air force and bombed Chinese cities at will. The loss of life, particularly for the Chinese, was enormous.

Yet the Chinese did not yield, and the war was prolonged far beyond Japan’s expectations. Chiang Kai-shek moved his capital to Chungking (Chongqing), in Szechwan (Sichuan), at the western end of the Yangtze gorges. Much of China’s leadership migrated to the far west, to Szechwan and Yünnan (Yunnan). Unoccupied China prepared for prolonged resistance. In occupied China, Japan was unsuccessful in inducing many Chinese to take office in the governments that it endeavoured to set up. Even there, Japan’s control was confined to the cities and the railway lines; outside these it was challenged by guerrilla bands that professed allegiance to the Nationalist government. The communists were particularly successful in using guerrilla methods to resist Japan. The rapid Japanese advances broke down the established patterns of politico-military control. Communist troops and organizers moved into the vast rural areas behind Japanese lines. They organized village self-defense units, created local governments, and expanded their own armies, the Eighth Route Army, operating in the mountains and plains of north China, and the New Fourth Army in the lower Yangtze valley.