Confucius
once said, "Women are worthless." And Chinese men believed
him—at least not until The King of Masks, the
English title of a Chinese film made in 1996 but released
in Los Angeles in 1999. Entitled Bian Lian (changing masks),
the setting is Sichuan province in the 1930s, with a few scenes
of a giant Buddha carved into stone alongside a river. As
the movie begins, Master Liang (played by Zhigang Zhao), a
popular transvestite stage performer, congratulates Bianlian
Wang (played by Zhu Xu) a street performer, who changes masks
as quickly as you can snap your finger. Liang offers Wang,
known as the King of Masks, a place in his entertainment troupe,
but he declines, preferring to perform on his own. Liang then
urges Wang, who has neither wife nor children, to find a male
heir so that he can pass along his tricks to another generation.
The King of Masks agrees, goes to a place where children are
bought and sold, and pays $5 for Gou Wa (played by Renying
Zhou), a nine-year-old who appears to be a boy but in fact
later discovers is a girl. Wang is still kind toward Gou Wa,
whom he calls "Doggie," albeit angry that he has been cheated.
Nevertheless, the King allows Gou Wa to be a domestic servant
and teaches her a few acrobatic tricks. When Doggie accidentally
sets fire to the King’s houseboat, she is kicked out, wanders,
is invited to a secret hiding place that turns out to be for
kidnapped children, gets the kidnapped son of a prominent
townsperson to escape, and sends the boy to the King of Masks
so that he will have the male heir that he seeks. When authorities
find the boy, the King of Masks is arrested, tortured into
confessing that he was the kidnapper, and he is sentenced
to death. Gou Wa then pleads with Master Liang to intercede,
but to no avail. In the presence of a high-ranking military
officer, Doggie then threatens to kill herself (copying a
dramatic scene performed early in the film by Master Liang)
until justice is done. Impressed at the child’s sincerity,
the officer obtains the release of the King of Masks from
jail. When finds that Doggie is faithfully taking care of
his rebuilt houseboat, the King of Masks teaches Gou Wa, finally
allowing her to call him "grandpa," all the tricks of the
trade, and the film ends happily. The director, Wu Tian-Ming,
took top honors at the 1996 Tokyo Film Festival for this emotional
masterpiece, as did Zhu Xu for Best Actor. MH
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