Bian Lian (1996)

Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son ... See full summary »

Director:

Tian-Ming Wu

Writers:

Wengui Chen (story), Minglun Wei (screenplay)

Stars:

Li Chen, Zhaoji Jia, Zhigang Zhang

22 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Li Chen	...	Ms Wen
Zhaoji Jia	...	Slave trader
Zhigang Zhang	...	Sulan, Luo
Zhigang Zhao	...	Liang Sao Lang
Renying Zhou	...	Gou Wa ("Doggie")
Xu Zhu	...	Bianlian Wang

Storyline

Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner aching for a male descendent to learn his rare and dying art. A famous master performer of the Sichuan Opera offers to bring him into his act, thus giving Wang fame and possible fortune, but Wang opts for staying the simple street performer. Then, one night after a performance he is sold a young boy by a slave trader posing as the boy's parent. "Grandpa" finds new joy in life as he plans to teach "Doggie" (an affectionate term often used for young children in China) his art. All is well until Doggie is found out to really be a girl.

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Plot Keywords:

pet monkey | slave trader | slave | slavers | wage slave | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

China Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

16 August 1996 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

King of Masks

Filming Locations:

Shanghai, China

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$394,272, 11 June 1999

Gross USA:

$1,104,619, 27 February 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shaw Brothers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Wang (The Mask King) is performing for the soldiers who insist on having his secret, his missing front tooth is there in one scene, then gone in the next.

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Alternate Versions

Original Chinese version runs 101 minutes; international Version runs 91 minutes.

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Connections

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

User Reviews

Awesome movie! Good for kids too! (8 and older)

I just saw this movie today with my children (son, 10 and daughter, 4.5) at the 3rd Annual Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival. After the film the children in the audience were allowed to ask questions to the Director, Tian-Ming Wu. He (through a translator) told several stories about his life and the making of the film.

All tangents aside, both of my children really enjoyed this movie. Of course, I had to paraphrase many of the subtitles for my daughter, but much of the film is visually self-explanatory.

I won't give anything away, but the bottom line is that this film is SO MUCH better than 95% of the Hollywood crap (especially children's films) out there.

Cheers.

p.s. There is a "real"/original King of Masks who can/could do 12 masks at once. The actor in the movie trained and learned to do up to 4 masks at a time (then they would cut and change to 4 new masks).