Oh to be a girl in early 20th century China - when boys are everything & girls are nothing. Less than nothing. When sons represent an heir & girls represent a burden. When sons cause men to look to the future with hope & pride - & girls don't. To be a girl in such a world - to be constantly reminded that you are of little or no value, that you are unwanted. To be forced to scrub floors, cook food, be a servant at the age of about 8 - a female age 8 - in order to not be cast into the streets - again - or sold in the guise of a boy - again - until your new master discovers your true sex & casts you out to be sold - again.THE KING OF MASKS (1996), directed by Tian-Ming Wu, tells the story of such a girl. This is quite a remarkable film. It bluntly & frankly depicts the gendered prejudices of early 20th century China. It is a heart breaking yet heart warming story about an old man - a street performer - in need of an heir to whom he can teach his craft in order that his art form may survive his own mortality. He buys a child he thinks is a boy only to later discover she is a girl. No longer may she call him "Grandp
a" - now she must call him "Master." What is so compelling about this man's gender prejudice is that he is such a nice, kind man. A loving man. We see this when he thinks he has saved a poor beaten boy-child from the streets. He is filled with compassion & love for the child - until the child becomes a girl. In this fashion this film makes the powerful statement that gender prejudice was NOT just the product of evil people. No. It was the product of all - an entire society.The remainder of the film focuses upon this young girl's struggles to earn her "Master's" acceptance, if not his love. She is slavishly, sincerely devoted to him. And, in an interesting thematic twist - she accidentally gets the man in trouble with the law because she finds him a boy - the boy he always wanted - instead of her. In other words, this little girl got the message - boys matter, girls don't. There is a sense of poetic justice in this man's brush with the law - as if his prejudice has been his undoing.
This is an extremely well acted & directed film. And thematically complex as it intertwines its story of the little girl with the exclusively male traditional form of theatre - Chinese Opera. A secondary character of THE KING OF MASKS is a MALE actor of Chinese Opera - an actor famous for his portrayal of female characters on the stage. Traditional forms of Chinese & Japanese theatre (Noh & Kabuki) were only performed by men. The performing of female parts by males was considered a highly regarded art form. It is still practiced today in performances of traditional theatre. This culturally rooted art form is grounded in the concept of "transformation" - male to female The gender bias of this traditional art form thematically parallels the old man's refusal to teach his art form to a girl.
I will not give away the ending of this poignant tale about gender acceptance except to say that it is hard fought for.
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3 comments:
Sounds brilliant.
such prejudices are still festering in societies like china and Pakistan where a family is not "complete" unless they have a male baby.
It is brilliant. And, yes, sadly old prejudices such as this do still exist - we as a human race are always, it seems, so reluctant to recognize our prejudices & to move past them. We are slow creatures though we are capable of being "faster."
Correction for you--she has to call him "Boss" not 'Master." and the story is set in 1930's China. It's a wonderful movie and transcends prejudice in the end. as is the point--to transcend.
to this day in All countries child abuse is prevalent--and not only among girls.
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