Just re-watched The Last Emperor and found the point where Pu Yi messed up.
At the beginning of the movie, young Emperor Pu Yi is given a cricket to be his friend by one of the imperial wise men. We don't see the cricket again for quite some time. Instead, we see him carrying around a mouse in his pocket. Meanwhile, China is falling into chaos and all Pu Yi can do is mope around the palace, as outside of the palace, he is not emperor.
Pu Yi is later expelled by rebels and takes refuge amongst the Japanese. He takes them up on their offer to become emperor of Manchuko (part of northern china). Little does he know, he's only a puppet and before long, he's back to moping around his new palace.
After manchuko falls to the Soviets, Pu Yi serves prison time in Russia, and then in Communist China. Afterwards, Pu Yi visits the Imperial Palace as a common tourist. He then crosses a rope barrier and climbs up to the golden throne where he is confronted by hitler youth a small child dressed up like a little communist boy scout. The kid tells Pu Yi that he cannot be up there, after a brief exchange of words, the kid demands Pu Yi prove he once lived there.
Pu Yi climbs the stairs and retrieves the box that contained the cricket he was given as a child and hands it to the kid. The kid opens it, and the cricket climbs out (after living for SIXTY YEARS IN A BOX UNDER THE THRONE!! ). Pu Yi however has disappeared.
My point here, the cricket is clearly something supernatural that was sent to help the emperor, and he ignored it.
Just as an odd item to throw out there:
Pu Yi's Cricket
Enchanted Item
Gives +1 to scholarship, empathy, deciet, presence, conviction, and intimidation during social engagements.
