The King of Masks
by Tian-Ming Wu
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Renying Zhou, Xu Zhu, Zhigang Zhang, Zhigang ZhaoDirector: Tian-Ming Wu
Brand: YUK,CHU
Cinematographer: Da-Yuan Mu
Producer: Mona Fong
Producer: Titus Ho
Writer: Minglun Wei
Writer: Wengui Chen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Chinese (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Mandarin Chinese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-03-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Summary of The King of Masks
An elderly street performer is offered a chance to practice his art with the Peking Opera. He refuses, wanting only to pass the tradition onto an hier of male descent. One night he is sold a boy only to find out later that the child is a girl.Genre: Foreign Film - Chinese
Rating: UN
Release Date: 7-MAR-2000
Media Type: DVD
The King of Masks tells a tale steeped in ancient tradition, simultaneously challenging the sociosexual inequity still plaguing China today. On the streets of Szechuan Province in the 1930s, the aged King of Masks, sole living master of "change-face" opera, delights and frightens audiences with the secret art of lightning-quick mask-shifting. His fondest wish is to pass on his skill to a male heir before he dies. Famous female impersonator Liang Sao Lang craves knowledge of the king's secret technique, offering to relieve the old man's poverty by taking him into his opera troupe. The king declines: what sort of heir would this half-female creature make? Instead, he buys an orphan on the black market, joyously showing him off as his grandson and heir. But soon the child is forced to disclose a dreaded secret--one that effectively renders him a person of no value according to Chinese custom. In the king's eyes, the kid goes from "beloved grandson" to "stupid crook," and both the old man and the child must pay dearly for his bigotry before they can know joy again. A deeply moving film, simply told and superbly acted. --Laura Mirsky
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