THE KING OF MASKS A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
In Tian-Ming Wu's delicately touching THE KING OF MASKS, Zhu Xu plays a humble but popular street performer known as "the King of Masks." Called Grandpa by one and all, he's had a hard life, but he's not complaining. A resolute and proud man, he has dedicated himself to his art and has asked no one for a handout. His wife left him decades ago for committing the unforgivable sin of poverty.
His one ambition in life has been to leave his magical art of "change-mask" to his son. This goal was long ago thwarted when his only child, a boy of 10, died.
His unique and magical art form is something well worth preserving. With a snap, he waves his hand in front of his face to reveal a new, wildly and intricately colored mask. When the last mask is off, the crowd has his beaming, snaggletoothed grin to entertain them.
Set in China in the 1930s, the film has a strong sense of place. The narrow alleyways give way to colorful houses encrusted in meandering bundles of mystical fog. The basic food staples at the market seems so real that you'll begin to smell them. One of the most satisfying, yet most unusual, aspects of the production is the music. In this very Chinese film, Jiping Zhao's richly melancholic music sounds reminiscent of some of the great American movie music of the 1950s, especially ON THE WATERFRONT.
It was a poorer time and place, in which children were bought, sold, and kidnapped. Sometimes, it was orphans trying to offer themselves up in return for a reliable source of food. Other times, it was parents who could no longer afford to put food on the table and wanted to find someone who could feed and care for their children. And sometimes, it was just a crook making a nefarious living.
In order to be able to pass on his talents to another generation, the quite elderly Grandpa goes to an underground children's market to buy a son. For a couple of dollars, he purchases a sweet 8-year-old, whom he nicknames Doggie. In a performance that avoids any hint of cloyingness, Zhou Ren-ying plays the smart and resourceful Doggie. The two leads deliver exquisite performances and demonstrate genuine chemistry between each other. It is easy to care as much for them as they do for one another.
There's only one thing amiss with Doggie. You guessed it. She's a girl. Although you think you'll figure out how grandpa comes upon this fact, you haven't got a chance in a million. Minglun Wei's charming screenplay pulls the solution out of left field, but it manages to make sense in context.
Da-Yuan Mu's intimate cinematography works best in its small moments of revealing honesty. It is most spectacular, however, in the more dramatic ones as in the movie's beginning sequence, in which a dragon is illuminated with sparks like a million fireflies and shaded in the ensuing clouds of smoke.
The director has a gift for making small things special. Grandpa has a pet monkey that's no baboon. The animal is the most consistently serious character in the movie, and he takes good care of his master. No dog has ever been more loyal. If they ever want to remake Lassie with a monkey, this is the one to get.
This simple tale, well told, has its share of tragedies. Your heart will be in every one of them, but you'll never feel manipulated or cheated. A small movie worth seeking out and savoring.
THE KING OF MASKS runs 1:41. The film is in Mandarin with English subtitles. It is not rated but would probably be PG for thematic elements, brief nudity and a couple of mild profanities. The picture would be fine for any kid old enough to be interested.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews