This sweeping cinematic spectacle follows the tumultuous life of Pu Yi, the last Chinese emperor, from his elite origins in the Forbidden City - where a new English tutor opens the boy's mind to the outside world - to his forced abdication in 1912 and his return to the throne under Japanese rule. Inextricably intertwined with the history of modern-day China, the story ends with the once-privilege emperor living a working-class life under communist rule.