Warm ‘Masks’ Reveals Life on the Margins

Director Wu Tianming, former head of the progressive Xian Film Studios and mentor to China’s two greatest directors, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, at last returns to the screen, after a long political exile, with “The King of Masks,” an exquisitely wrought period piece set in the Sichuan province in the ‘30s, an era plagued by both natural disasters and increasing political instability. A film of much humor and sentiment, it celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.

The film opens as an elderly man in a boat emerges from the mists hovering over a river. He is Bian Lian Wang (Zhu Xu, a wonderfully witty and expressive veteran actor) known as the King of Masks. He’s a lifelong street performer, adept at working up his audiences before treating them to his confounding act, which enables him to replace one fearsome mask with another with lightning speed.

Living on his boat and plying his trade as he travels up and down the river, the King is a hearty, tough old man, proudly self-sufficient and philosophical. But as his only son died at age 10 more than 20 years earlier, he has no one to whom to pass on his art, handed down from father to son for untold generations. He longs for an heir and also someone to look after him should the infirmities of age eventually overtake him.

Terrible floods have pushed peasant families to start selling off their infant daughters for a pittance, but the King holds out for a boy, as tradition dictates that the secret of the masks can be passed only to males. Just as he is leaving the shadowy, heart-rending market in infants and babies a child (Zhou Ren-Ying, adorable and talented) with cropped hair, a radiant smile and a direct gaze stops him in his tracks. The King cannot resist the child he calls Doggie, who, as you might have guessed, turns out to be a girl.

The relationship works: Doggie gratefully not only cooks and cleans but under the King’s training becomes a skilled contortionist to provide him with an opening act. And the King can’t help but care for Doggie, even if she is only a girl. There is a timeless quality to the King and Doggie’s simple way of life, but of course time never stands still, and the fabric of Sichuan society becomes dangerously frayed as the plight of China relentlessly worsens.

The ways in which gifted writer Wei Minglung reshaped a script submitted to Wu by Hong Kong’s venerable Shaw Bros. Film Productions suggest Wu’s identification with the film’s central characters, having experienced a long exile as well, feeling like someone living on the margins of society. The King rightly sees himself as an artist, but he’s nonetheless a poor and lowly street entertainer, and as a female, Doggie has virtually no status at all.

Photographed superbly by Mu Dayuan and scored in appropriately stirring fashion by Chen Wengui, “The King of Masks” is gorgeous to behold, with its enchanting authentic vintage settings and beautiful natural locales. There’s tremendous affection for his people on the part of Wu, who respects their tenacity, good humor and kindness. One of the characters sums up the meaning of the film when he remarks: “The world is a cold place, but we can bring warmth to it.”

* Unrated. Times guidelines: some intense, violent scenes but suitable for mature older children.

‘The King of Masks’

Zhu Xu: Bian Lian Wang

Zhou Ren-Ying: Doggie

Zhao Zhigang: Liang Sao Lang

Zhang Riuyang: Tien Che

A Samuel Goldwyn Films release of a Shaw Bros. production. Producer-director Wu Tianming. Executive producers Mona Fong, Hong Pou Chu. Screenplay Wei Minglung. Cinematographer Mu Dayuan. Music Chen Wengui. Art director Wu Xujing. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

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