@jt7638
It is touching to see Pu Yi show some humanity and decency even if it failed to save the warden, at least the warden knew someone tried.
@majorcalvary6515
My wife’s family lived through cultural revolution, and some were part of Red Guards. They told me this movie was absolutely accurate, and they usually don’t like to talk about it. It was a crazy and just mad Times.
@Ironheart73
This scene completes the circle of Puyi's character arc through his turnaround. Puyi was raised to be a spoiled brat. His upbringing and social status never really allowed him to develop basic values such as empathy and compassion for other people. The movie actually toned down his cruelty. Puyi would actually beat his eunuch servants with a stick for entertainment. At one point he even killed one. Throughout his younger years we see how his encapsulation in his own world made him selfish and ignorant about what was going on with his country, the world, and how life works in general. It was only after his incarceration that he becomes a changed man. In this scene we see him care for another soul. Something he could not do when he was emperor. He is a commoner now. He has to work to put food on the table. He finally understands now humanity.
@harryloo8544
The actor of the prison guard is Ying Ruocheng, Chinese Communist Party's vice minister of culture at that time. He is ethnic Manchu and was also forced to the provinces to do manual labor during the Cultural Revolution.
@anguscovoflyer95
Puyi can see the irony, he was once worshiped as a god but now mao is now being worshipped as a god and isn't officially an emperor nor is china a monarchy anymore.
@nassauguy48
Despite the attempt to foster a cheerful atmosphere with all the dancing, music and singing, everyone has a hypnotized and somber expression on their faces.
@michellecrocker2485
Here’s where you gotta finally feel sorry for pu-yi. The way he and his brother were watching this procession with fear and confusion means that he doesn’t really know how to move forward from his dream to be emperor and just survive in ways he never imagined he’d have to. When he’s at that camp, you see that he has trouble moving forward from being emperor and the warden helped him to learn how to live land do things on his own. Puyi realizes what this warden did for him and defended him later not fully realizing exactly what had happened in that country. To see him go from sadistic and arrogant to humble is the closest thing to a arc we get here
@LiveForPanda
This masterpiece is one of few western films that accurately depict China during Cultural Revolution.
@thoughts1911
Just a bit information, when the cultural revolution started, the central made a list of people who should be protected from the so called red guard youth, Emperor Puyi and his close royal relatives, Song Qinglin, Vice President of PRC but also the widow of Sun Zhongshan, the builder of Republic China in 1911, Li Zongren, the former president of Republic of China (1911-1949), and the family of Confucius, the biggest noble family which lasts for over 2000 years, Mao didn’t treat them as what Lenin did to the Romanovs. As Mao said “I may disagree with Confucian, but I when was at school during the Qing dynasty, I read all of Confucius classics, and I can’t say it has no impact on me”. Confucius said: those with noble and grace ambitious, will not seek to success or alive to harm the Ren (Ren, Confucius created a word for the highest moral standard in his mind), but will rather sacrifice their lives to protect Ren, what is Ren, the one with Ren must a man loves people”. In the view of Confucius, what Lenin did to the Tsar Nicolas and his family, cannot be accepted no matter what condition it might be, because a real hero will not do such thing. The historical meeting of Mao and Emperor Puyi in early 1960s was dramatic, Mao invited the warlords who kicked the emperor out of Forbidden City Palace in 1924 to come to the dinning, those warlords arrived first, Mao made jokes with them “today, we are going to meet our old supervisor, you will see”. When the emperor entered into the dining room, Mao said “see, we have Puyi here tonight, we both born in the late Qing dynasty, and when we were young, we were the subjects of Puyi as he was the emperor, he’s indeed the old boss of all of us right?”
@nguyenucnam9382
china says no to western's influence red guards : playing accordion
@ispi7670
Basically, it shows us that the old emperor has been replaced by a new one.
@leerogish7223
The irony is that the prison warden was likely being humiliated by the red guard for some petty reason such as he had a relative who was a wealthy landowner or he said something taken as an insult to Mao and they called him the emperors lacky yet the emperor himself was speaking to them face to face and they didn’t even realize it. Puyi was nothing than a run of the mill old man to them at this point not someone who personified everything they hated.
@WAYT00Much
I've been told by my grandparents that the red guards were at our house had free lunch and left.
@Nikohere
This was the extended version DVD version that i have, always go back & watch it on my imac but id like to know the song that played in the prison where the Governor is walkin down the steps to the courtyard where the stone benches are & the stage is where all prisoners sat or stood up while the governor was up on stage talking to them. It's some cultural revolutionary song that plays i can't really make it out because it's kinda distorted when they play it in the movie as he's walkin down where the ground is all covered w snow he's walkin to his little office walks in & shuts the door & pulls the kettle off pouring himself some hot warm water to drink & is where he starts reading Mr Johnston's book of Puyi & his trip to China to get the facts straight about Puyi.
@hotcold7340
This looks very real, but real red guards were 10 times brutal and uncontrollable.
@wildfire9453
this is a movie about the cultural revolution made by the chinese. from the perspective of the last emperor, Pu Yi, a crazy and inhuman era. i remember that when this movie was shown throughout China, it caused a lot of discussion and reflection.
@rickjohnson9558
All revolutions eventually devour their own children.
@franandwood14
I saw this scene in history class except the guard doesn’t say “buzz off” he says “fuck off” 2:40
@xiphoid2011
It's really sad to watch. My maternal grandfather returned to China after graduation in the US during the second sino-japanese out of patriotism to fight the Japanese. We was a professor when the communist party took over. He taught countless young minds to help rebuild a new China, but was branded a rightist and put into political prison for more than 10 years. When this movie was made, the communist party had finally recognized it's wrongs and release him from prison, and allowing this movies to be made was like a form of apology. For a while we had hope for a more righteous China, the Xi came to power and things retrograded, and we are watching the history repeats like Cultural Revolution 2.0 playing out again in slow motion.
@Shogo5000