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Issued by: Beth Stafford
Phone: 414-229-4800
bstaff@uwm.edu
Nov. 3, 2006
Two Chinese Filmmakers to be Present at UWM for Screening
Wu Tianming(above) and Luo Xueying
MILWAUKEE – Two Chinese filmmakers will make a presentation and also attend a film screening and discussion at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee on Monday, Nov. 13. Wu Tianming and producer Luo Xueying will speak in Mitchell Hall, room 361, 3203 N. Downer Ave., at 3:30 p.m. Wu Tianming will screen his film, “King of Masks,” at 7 p.m. in the UWM Union Theatre, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., with Luo Xueying. All events are free and open to the public.
Wu Tianming has been directing films since the early 80s, and is a member of China’s “Fourth Generation” of directors. As head of China’s Xi’an Studio, he oversaw well known directors of the “Fifth Generation,” such as Chen Kaige (“Farewell My Concubine,” “The Promise”) and Zhang Yimou (“Hero, To Live”). Because of this, Wu Tianming is occasionally referred to as “The Godfather of the Fifth Generation.” After running the studio for 5 years, political pressures forced him to flee China for the U.S. Soon after his return to China in 1994, he directed the “King of Masks” (1996).
As Laura Mirsky writes, “The ‘King of Masks’ tells a tale steeped in ancient tradition, simultaneously challenging the sociosexual inequity still plaguing China today. On the streets of Szechuan Province in the 1930s, the aged King of Masks, sole living master of ‘change-face’ opera, delights and frightens audiences with the secret art of lightning-quick mask-shifting. His fondest wish is to pass on his skill to a male heir before he dies.
“Famous female impersonator Liang Sao Lang craves knowledge of the king's secret technique, offering to relieve the old man’s poverty by taking him into his opera troupe. The king declines: What sort of heir would this half-female creature make? Instead, he buys an orphan on the black market, joyously showing him off as his grandson and heir. But soon the child is forced to disclose a dreaded secret—one that effectively renders him a person of no value according to Chinese custom. In the king’s eyes, the kid goes from ‘beloved grandson’ to ‘stupid crook,’ and both the old man and the child must pay dearly for his bigotry before they can know joy again. A deeply moving film, simply told and superbly acted.”
The film was made in 1999 in Mandarin with English subtitles. The screening is sponsored by the Center for International Education, the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, the UWM Union Theatre, and the collaboration of The ChinaFilm Project/Dr. Hal Weaver. The ChinaFilm Project (www.ChinaFilmProject.org) is dedicated to using film to facilitate cross-cultural respect and understanding between U.S. and Chinese peoples.
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