In March of 2000 ears recommended King of Masks (Bian Lian)

Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

It is now almost exactly five years since then, and belatedly, I would like to voice my strong support for that recommendation.
If it keeps going like this, in five more years another guy here will discover it... time moves slowly in some parts of the world.
It is always hard to recommend a melodrama. The damning "tearjerker" label is far too real, and the film has to walk tight rope to avoid falling into your usual pits.
So melodrama it is. A Chinese one. With some standard Chinese attributes - enter the Chinese opera, which I have never been alble to either absorb nor understand.
Every melodrama needs a cute face, and this one delivers in droves. Your heart will truly melt at the sight of that little face. And the plot will ring a familiar bell, albeit with some new turns.
And yet... I do recommend it. It is an incredibly warm picture, and would make one exceedingly fine family entertainment.
It has sheer beauty in its many episodes, and there is good dose of philosophy to boot, and two main characters play marvelously well. It has an incredibly soft pace... not slow, but rather gentle and soft. It speaks with human voice and shows the emotions many of us would like to see more often.
It is a humanist film, and for all its melodramatic faults it does deserve your serious consideration.
Even if it takes another five years.

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Topic - In March of 2000 ears recommended King of Masks (Bian Lian) - Victor Khomenko 18:19:25 02/26/05 (0)

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