Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

anonymole Rank:1. The Sixth Sense 2. The King of Masks 3. Unforgiven~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1. Good Will Hunting 2. The King of Masks 3. Ulee's GoldMovies are either WATCH / DON'T WATCH. Rank them if they are WATCH.Reasoning: Movies are a binary experience. Either you watch them or you don't. So they should reflect such a sentiment when you rate them. But, even though a movie may be a "WATCH" there will be a sequence by which one should watch it. Only by ranking movies will you know if you should watch one vs another.

Vishal Agrawal Wang Bianlian is an old street performer who is known as a 'King of masks' for his mastery of Sichuan change art. Liang is a famous opera performer of Sichuan art and respects Wang as an artist and as a person. Liang is worried that a precious art shouldn't die with Wang and so he sows the seed of an heir in to Wang's mind. The film is about prejudices, male domination, state of art, values and most importantly warmth.I can't recommend this film enough. The whole film is in loops. Everything has a significance. Its a long story which has been edited so well that the length of the film is just 91 minutes. A total satisfaction. For five minutes it is an artistic film, next five minutes its a sad film, next five minutes its a thriller. It just keeps changing its mood like its protagonist changes his face. Last scene on the rope is phenomenal. Story and script is flawless. Actors are brilliant. Both the protagonists are artists you can tell the way they have performed. Very impressive. It was not even nominated for Oscars. That year 'English patient' got the best film Oscar and in the foreign film category 'Kolya' won. 'Kolya' was just OK and about 'English patient' the lesser said the better. Watch it 9/10.

zzmale In the rapid economic development of 1990's in China, there is a resurgence of traditional Chinese culture, partially due to the rise of nationalism accompanied by the increase in wealth, and more importantly, due to the sense of spiritual belonging after the collapse of the old socialist ideology in the post Cultural-Revolutionary era.However, the resurgence of Chinese traditional culture, namely, the Confucianism, was not without disasters, because Chinese are adopted the entire tradition without eliminating the bad part, and the discrimination against girls demonstrated in this film is an excellent example.Moreover, not only the part that should be discarded were inherited, the good part that was supposed to be inherited, such as the traditional opera, and its technique, such as changing face, was ignored in the resurgence, and facing extinction.The director used this film to criticize the problem of re-embracing tradition by contemporary China and this is the deeper meaning behind the movie.

wildstrawbe There's something really beautiful about every chinese movie I have seen and "The King of Masks" couldn't possibly be the exception to that rule. The story starts with an old man, a street actor whose art is to change masks really quick making it look like magic. According to a family tradition the father passes the secrets of his art to a male member of his family but never to a stranger or to a woman. The old man though does not have any children and is afraid that he will be the one who will break the family tradition and take the secrets of his art with him to the grave. He therefore decides to adopt a young boy. The little boy he buys turns out to be a girl. The old man doesn't want to keep her anymore since he can't teach her his art but after she begs him to keep him, he decides to let her stay at his boat and perform with him. The King of Masks, is so beautiful it's almost like a fairy tale. I don't think it's wrong to say that the movie has a feminist message because it centers on how the little girl tries to convince the old man that the fact that she is a woman doesn't make her any less worthy than a boy to learn the secrets of his art.The performances by both the little girl and the old man are brilliant but it's the little monkey called "The General" who steals the show. A great movie that will bring tears to your eyes.