The critical analysis of the biopic film -'The Last Emperor' and it's Essay

The critical analysis of the biopic film -'The Last Emperor' and it's underlying feature - Essay Example As such, rather than detailing a point by point plot summary or analyzing different motifs of film-making, the analysis will instead seek to grapple with the issue of major underlying themes that is presented throughout this biopic film. Accordingly, the focus of the essay will be concentric on the film itself; using the three distinct segments of the film to highlight the underlying sense of an end of an era that is represented within the life experience of the main character; Puyi. Likewise, it is the hope of this student that the following discussion will not only be beneficial towards assisting the reader in understanding the film to a better and more complete degree, it is the further hope of this student that the forthcoming analysis will help to reveal core trends and key understandings concerning the interpretation of modern Chinese/Asian history within the era in question. Within the first segment of the film, an imprisoned Puyi experiences a series of flashbacks that depict a much different time than the one he currently finds himself in. Within these flashbacks, the viewer is taken back to a much simpler period of Chinese history; one in which the order of royal succession provided a baseline of expectation and legitimacy that helped to define all of the Chinese Empire (Geier, 1993). As such, Puyi experiences these flashbacks as he considers a very uncertain fate at the hands of a cold and calculatedly divergent regime; at least as compared to that which is represented within the warm and contended feelings that are represented within the flashbacks. Within these flashbacks, a unique trend is represented; one in which the life of royalty in all of its splendor is represented alongside the realization that the remainder of China at the time depicted was much harsher and worse than can even be imagined. Whereas many film makers would have