King of the Children (Haizi Wang) may have a General Audiences rating; however it is far from a general audiences film (especially Western audiences). The film is too austere, too realistic, and too poignant to be appreciated by the vast majority of Western viewers. They appreciate teaching films like Goodbye, Mr Chips (both the classic original with Robert Donat and the passable remake with Peter O'Toole), Conrack, To Sir With Love, Stand and Deliver, Dead Poet's Society, and even Mr. Holland's Opus. These are all fine films in their own right, and I may have left off one or two of the viewers' favorites, but this films annihilates them for sheer raw power.
Set in a very poor countryside village in the early 1970s, the settings of the other teacher films on the list are luxurious in comparison. The ghetto of Los Angeles is a luxury resort compared to these villages and the struggle of these Chinese peasants to merely survive every day with food and clothing. We do not see communism at all in any of these scenes; merely poverty and people pulling together to survive in a basic socialistic approach. There is no other way to survive these conditions. Chen Kaige is one of the two greatest directors in Chinese cinema (the other being Zhang Yimou). And it shows in this stunningly beautiful, and at the same time, ugly, film. The movie requires a great deal of patience to watch (I viewed it with no subtitles and had no problem understanding every scene; the mark of a great filmmaker). Few Americans will have the patience to endure the film, nor the intelligence to appreciate it, but some will. It is a trip worth taking.
Set in a very poor countryside village in the early 1970s, the settings of the other teacher films on the list are luxurious in comparison. The ghetto of Los Angeles is a luxury resort compared to these villages and the struggle of these Chinese peasants to merely survive every day with food and clothing. We do not see communism at all in any of these scenes; merely poverty and people pulling together to survive in a basic socialistic approach. There is no other way to survive these conditions. Chen Kaige is one of the two greatest directors in Chinese cinema (the other being Zhang Yimou). And it shows in this stunningly beautiful, and at the same time, ugly, film. The movie requires a great deal of patience to watch (I viewed it with no subtitles and had no problem understanding every scene; the mark of a great filmmaker). Few Americans will have the patience to endure the film, nor the intelligence to appreciate it, but some will. It is a trip worth taking.