The King of Masks

The King of Masks

American DVD cover
Directed by Wu Tianming
Written by Wei Minglun
Starring Zhu Xu
Zhou Renying
Zhao Zhigang
Music by Zhao Jiping
Cinematography Mu Da-Yuan
Distributed by Hong Kong:
Shaw Brothers
United States:
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release dates
 June 13, 1999 (USA)
Running time
 101 min. (China)
91 min. (USA)
Country People's Republic of China
Language Mandarin

The King of Masks (simplified Chinese: 变脸; traditional Chinese: 變臉; pinyin: Biàn Liǎn) is a 1996 Chinese film directed by Wu Tianming.

Synopsis

Wang is The King of Masks, an aged street performer who practices the change-mask opera art of bian lian. He laments that he has no male heirs to carry on his mysterious and complicated art and trade. At an illegal child market, Wang buys what he believes to be an orphan boy to become his adopted grandson and apprentice.

However, Wang soon learns his new disciple is in fact a girl. As tradition dictates that he cannot pass his art onto a girl, he tries to abandon her, but she stubbornly stays with him. He later calls her "doggie" and has her refer to him as "boss. He then begins to train her to be a flexible contortionist street performer. While looking at his masks, she accidentally sets his humble residence on fire. Out of guilt, she runs away. She is then captured by two men and held in a room with a boy to be sold later. Doggie helps the boy escape and takes him to Wang to have as a grandson.

Then, Wang is falsely accused of kidnapping the boy, a rich family's child, and is thrown in jail. Doggie goes to one of his friends, a famous performer in the local opera, threatening to kill herself if he or any of his guests, including a local military general, are unable to help Wang. The King of Masks is eventually freed, and he finally accepts the girl as his granddaughter and teaches her his art.

Reception

The film won a number of awards at various film festivals around the world. It had a limited American theatrical release in 1999 and earned about one million US dollars.

Awards and nominations

External links

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