it a tale that could have take place anywhere really and give the right circumstance . street entertainer catch the attention of famous opera star and friendship ensuing . the age entertainer find or buy a male child to pass his art to . from there and we follow them through the rigor of their challenging and but free life along the river . travel town to town and he perform and have some degree of notoriety . despite the time and the influence and the man be kind and good . overall and the performance be first rate and especially xu zhu and who portray the street performer . the child ( renying zhou ) be beautiful and and downright strong and and withstand the overt prejudice well . the two protagonist and along with support help from the kind opera singer and master liang ( an interestingly androgynous zhao zhigang ) and paint a very interesting tale of forgiveness and sadness and love . some have mention this film remote similarity to ba wang bie ji ( farewell my concubine ) while yet this film can not stand easily on it own and any resemblance be remote at best . my only qualm with the king of mask and be the end . it be weak and cliche and about as subtle a a sledgehammer . the audience be already wrap up in the story and what be the needless manipulation for . what a shame . to bring a fine motion picture that far and only to surrender to emotional ( and corny ) pathos like that . it frankly make this film good and instead of the classic and it should have be . that aside and the king of mask be still very well worth your time . i be happy to see the shaw brother be still produce good film . highly recommended .