Synopsis
Wu Tianming, one-time godfather to China’s “fifth-generation” directors and himself the director of such classics as OLD WELL, finally returns to filmmaking after six years of “exile” in California. THE KING OF MASKS is set in the rural Sichuan of the 1930s. The title character is an elderly street entertainer(his act involves switching makes with uncanny speed)who realizes that he is at risk of dying without an heir to keep alive his family name and inherit the secrets of his art. He decides on impulse to adopt a son, and buys a boy from a penniless man-only to discover that he has been tricked : the child is actually a girl. And woman, of course, are trouble…
Knowing Wu Tianming’s personal history and current situation, it’s impossible to avoid sensing elements of allegory in the film. When THE KING OF MASKS turns down a kind offer of a permanent place with a traveling opera troupe because he prefers to remain independent, for example, the resonances are loud. But the film puts nothing in the way of telling its engrossing and emotive story.
And its core meaning is anyway far stronger than the hints of subtext. At a time of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” When the whole of China seems consumed by greed, this is a protest against inhumanity and a lack of compassion. Humanity and compassion, of course, are qualities it has in spades. – Tony Rayns(Vancouver)-