Through gathering inspirational research on ethnic jewelry, I found myself particularly interested in chinese Emperial dress, made for Emperors and Empresses across an ancient tradition lasting over ten thousand years. This film shows the decline of China's imperial system up until the last Emperor is expelled from the forbidden city by the Republican army in 1924. Coming to the thrown at the age of three under the command of the Empress Dowager Cixi, the plot tells the extraordinary life of Pu Yi giving a rich insight into the lifestyle and richness that surrounded him within the Forbidden city while the rest of China modernised under Western influence outside his knowledge.
The film was shot on location to accurately re-create the environment in wich the Emperors had lived. All the costumes had to be accurately designed and made for a large number of extras in keeping with traditional garments and dress. As a Historical film, I feel this was a very useful source of information through showing how replicas of traditional items and costume help to tell the story. There tends to be a greater importance attached to the re-creation and restoration of items for museum displays and collections.
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