#27: The King of Masks (1999)

Nearing the end of his life, Wang -- a locally renowned street performer and wizard of the venerable art of mask magic -- yearns to pass on his technique. But custom prescribes that he can only hand down his craft to a male successor. Anxious to preserve his unique art, the heirless Wang buys an impoverished 8-year-old on the black market. When the child divulges a dreaded secret, Wang faces a choice between filial love and societal tradition.

Lovely and kinda plot-heavy, surprisingly. The summary above really only captures a piece of the film -- there are many little twists and turns, nearly all revolving around Wang's desire for a male heir to whom he can teach his art. So many things about these lives are hard: the selling of children, the lack of value placed on girl children, the need for a male to inherit knowledge and name, life on the street, infant/child mortality, et cetera.

A couple things that struck me while viewing:
There was something about the score and cinematography seem very melodramatically Western to me at moments, but that's likely an artifact of my own limited film knowledge. Is there a parallel with Sichuan opera? (which has a minor role in the film)

Calling the boy "doggie" was more than a little odd, though -- it would be interesting to hear from someone who can offer an alternate translation of the actual dialogue.


And hm... with King of Kong and King Corn, this is kind of a humorous run I'm having here (though I had to abandon King Corn for now due to audio problems). I wonder what else there is... the Last King of Scotland (which is already in the queue), the King of Comedy (haven't seen for a LONG time), the King of New York, King of California (Michael Douglas), and Ping-pongkingen (the King of Ping-Pong). The last is now at the top of my queue.