King of Masks DVD Review

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King of Masks/A-,C

Columbia/1996/101m/PS 1.33

Despite a sub-par transfer, The King of Masks is an extraordinarily beautiful film not to be missed on DVD.

This remarkable tale of an aging street performer whose his art will die unless he passes it on to a son is told with poetic vision by Chinese director Wu Tianming. Wu paints the story with the same grand craft that the performer, known as The King of Masks, paints his marks and plies his art. The act we see is beautiful for its simplicity. The King of Masks changes his apparition with the magic wave of a hand in front of his face, changing masks with the same sleight of hand that a magician makes objects appear and disappear.

The King of Masks teaches his girl. ŠGoldwyn

      We pick up the tale of The King of Masks as the old performer is searching for a son to adopt. In his desperation, he adopts a girl posing as a boy. While she is devoted to him and learns quickly, the revelation that she is a girl is devastating. Her devotion backfires when she tries to give her mentor what he wants.
     Don't look for predictability in this moving tale set in the streets of Sichuan province during the late 1930s. There's plenty of charm, a colorful arena, and a satisfying conclusion.
    This is a very disappointing transfer. It is Pan and Scan or cropped, I am not sure which, but some scenes are definitely cramped with peripheral figures cut off. The film was shot spherical for 1.85 presentation, and I presume open matte, meaning that an image exposing the entire 1.33 negative was available to be matted in projection. A quick comparison to the theatrical trailer included on the DVD, and by God, you can readily see the best possible image is not on this DVD. Usually trailers look much worse than the finished product we see as the feature, but the opposite is true here. The trailer is sharper with more vivid color. The sound is a disaster of its own. Dialogue is delivered at a wide range of levels. Sometimes it sounds like the voices have been recorded with reverb. The lovely score is not in balance with the dialogue, often overpowering it. The film is presented in Chinese with a choice for English, French or Spanish yellow subtitles.

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