| KING OF MASKS Director: Wu Tian-ming "The thirties were after the Cheng dynasty had collapsed and there was fighting among warlords and a good deal of turmoil. People’s lives were broken up and people were wandering around the countryside. Especially wandering artisans and orphaned children. It was a time when people’s lives were laid out more. I didn’t really intend to give any kind of a political message or present any political conflicts. What I really wanted to do was [present] this intermeshing of human emotions" Wu Tian-Ming KING OF MASKS is a heartfelt film directed by Wu Tian-ming that like many films imported to the U.S. from China deals with the fate of lower classes and the misfortunes of young women in a traditional patriarchal culture. The period is set right after the end of dynastic rule in the 1930's and right before the Cultural Revolution in the 1950’s. Bian (Zhu Xu) an elder street performer lives a lonely life on a houseboat traveling between villages. He makes his living performing sleight of hand face changing tricks with masks. His only companion is a little monkey and as he has grown older he realizes that he needs to pass his trade on to a male heir. Too old now to marry he decides, at the behest of a local Opera singer, to adopt a boy from an adoption agency. The film’s crafty slant is that he unwittingly takes a young girl (Zhou Ren-Ying whose characters name is Doggie) under his wing and must ultimately face the fact that girls have just as much a right to the cultural customs that are usually reserved for boys. But he won’t give in at first and it takes a lot of plot twists, heartache, near tragic consequences (all accentuated by a sentimental score) to get there. The film uses an obvious parallel subplot taken from a famous local opera that Bian and Doggie occasionally attend. There is an unquestionable connection between the stories within the opera and the situations in their own lives. Doggie learns from the opera how to get what she wants. And the film hinges on her willingness to sacrifice herself to save Bian when he is in trouble. The film's strongest sections are those in which Bian finally decides to break tradition and teach Doggie the tricks of the trade. Proving to himself that old customs can and should be broken. Many Chinese films that have played in the States are life-affirming works that have a tough, tragic artistic edge. This film shares many of these attributes but it has a maudlin touch and deals more with the power of forgiveness and redemption than ill fate. Part of the reason may be because director Tian-ming lived in the U.S. for a while and worked in a video store in Los Angeles where he undoubtedly saw a number of Hollywood films. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have a tear in your eye when it’s over. - Matt Langdon |