The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci

The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci

                The Last Emperor is actually… not the last.

Notwithstanding the fact that China is officially a republic and a communist one at that, it is still governed with imperial pretense.

In other words, Xi has imperial powers, which are not unusual for communist regimes, as 1984 can attest.

As a former inhabitant of such a “piece of communist heaven”, far away from China though, I can talk about the despondency of these regimes.

These imperial leaders indulge in reveries about this being the Paradise on earth promised by religions and accomplished by…

The likes of Che Guevara, Mao and the rest of The Wild Bunch

Communist empires are much more lugubrious than any of the systems they replace, Mao and Stalin have each killed many more than Hitler, an aspect of history that is too often alas forgotten.

Hitler was a mass killer, lunatic, insufferable and a monster, but so were, if not worse, the communist counterparts.

Yet, stern as reality was and is young people and leaders in the west harbor illusory images of communist paradise.

Men like Corbin and Melenchon indulge in dangerous illusions, divine preposterous scenarios disconsidering the communist massacres.

Therefore, The Last Emperor of the film is in comparison a real benign figure and a Role Model when placed near Mao.

The system had flaws of course.

One would be not just retrograde and fundamentalist to invoke and harbor visions of new empires.

Yet that is exactly what the undersigned is doing.

I long for (aspects of) the Victorian British Empire.

The civilized China of this age, without the Emperor, has a Xi who is ready to wage war against Taiwan.

In fact, they will surely threaten and then attack the island, in just a few decades from now, if the Taiwanese do not give in.

Which they will not.

China is creating artificial islands in the South China Sea that they have long now considered as something of a Chines lake.

They bully neighbors, have stolen secrets from companies, which they anyway force to capitulate when they enter their market.

This is what one might think about while pondering the themes of The Last Emperor, which is a resplendent film.

The hero can be of course derided for his many flaws, but I think the predominant feeling is one of pity.

That sounds strange, given that this was an emperor, who had two wives and a multitude of servants.

However, the emperor was trapped in the Forbidden City and he had to do so many things he did not want.

As for the wives, well, they ended up by being more of a nuisance than a joy, after the initial unmistakable pleasure they offered.

When the Japanese have occupied China, the emperor has been accused of betraying his country, which maybe he did.

However, is it betrayal, when one is on the other side from a land that has become a murderous tyranny?

Perhaps this is the thinking of a traitor, but if I were to choose between the communist country I had to live in and any of its democratic supposed enemies, I would not have hesitated for a second

Hence, my sympathy is all for this Last Emperor, that the despicable communists have locked up.

They have replaced him with a heinous, lamentable, lugubrious, indulgent, stern, derisive figure- Mao

In addition, the Last Emperor to date is Xi, a man who would not control North Korea, bullies all those around…worse than leaders of empires from the old days.