Seeing as how American and Chinese relations are, at this point in time, competitive, to say the least, I found “The Last Emperor” very interesting. It was such a sweeping grand narrative across, supposedly, the entire life of a single human being, albeit, an exceptional one. At the time of its release, it completely dominated the academy awards, as some films did once upon a time, and may still do now though I don’t watch the oscars regularly anymore nor do I follow new movies very closely. What is it about “The Last Emperor” that so enraptures the imagination? I think, to answer my own question, it is several things: 1) history, plain and simple. History has the capacity to fascinate us all in one way or another, though it can also be very boring paradoxically. And Chinese history in particular seems so rife with titillation for a Western Audience. 2) Ruling is something that the average individual dreams about perhaps more than anything else and this IS the story of a ruler. 3) The 20th century was fraught with upheaval on all fronts and this movie makes the most of China’s inwardly-focused upheavals. While America was scattered across the entire world for various militaristic and economic reasons throughout most of the 20th century, China was seemingly, again, inwardly-focused going through massive changes and power structure overhauls.

While the west was running around the globe, China was parked behind its national borders seething with tumult and chaos.

Somehow, this movie scrutinizes that inward-facing vision through an outward-facing lens, and does it well.

To be honest, I’m not really a history buff. I’m sure if someone examined my above assessment of China’s and America’s roles in the 20th century, they could poke it full of holes if they felt so inclined. But I do know that while I may not have my facts straight, I have the general idea right: the idea being that China’s political structure went through some massive changes in the 20th century while America’s political system was, by comparison, very calm and stable.

So presumably, if somehow the Chinese could make a movie about America’s 20th century global exploits using some kind of communal subject instead of a single individual,, who knows, maybe they could produce something similar. The story of America’s 20th century global hijinks as told using a certain cohesive group of people as a subject, I like that.