Even in their own words, it is strange for a Chinese film to have an
Australian writer-director and Canadian producer; one they even state is very
much of a certain era in Beijing life. But as both were raised in China in the
Eighties and Nineties, the informed outsiders may be able to take a more
objective look of an era now most-likely lost.
Maybe not so much nowadays, but we've all been offered a pirate DVD in
a pub. And that's the basic premise of "King of Peking": a father-son
duo of Big Wong and Little Wong who create pirate copies of cinema classics to
sell on street corners. Cinephile Big Wong lives with his son after the
breakdown off his marriage. Showing films of improvised cinema screens on the
street, Big Wong has his son working in every role in film, other than the role
left or Big Wong: that of projectionist.
But soon with their equipment damaged, refunds offered and complaints
about wasting money on watching old films they can see on video, the pair lose
their market. Big Wong, wanting to still pursue his dream takes a role as a
live-in janitor of a local cinema, Little Wong following him there. But without
his ex-wife's blessing, she demands custody of the child or huge maintenance
payments. Not wanting to lose his business partner, he opts for the latter, but
needs to find a way of raising such a large amount of money. Working at a
cinema, and fuelled by the seed of home entertainment planted by a disgruntled
punter, Big Wong turns to video piracy.
Finding a test model of a DVD recorder in a second-hand shop, he
enquires as to where it came from. An abandoned Japanese factory is the answer,
which he soon locates, finding a mother-load of the same test model. Setting up
a video camera in the cinema where he works, he makes multiple copies of each
film shown there, his business partner making covers for the finished product
and helping out with dubbing new soundtracks.
Making enough to keep his son and pay his ex-wife, all seems rosy, but
his son is unhappy at the constant work and abuse from his father, using him for
his own interests. Running away to his mother, he soon loses his business and
son's respect, as well as his job, having been found-out.
Making a film you hope to make money out of about piracy is always
going to be interesting as to the moral standpoint. And similar to Michel
Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind" we a treated to a light-hearted look at
film piracy, showing those making the copies are earnest film fans doing it for
the love of cinema...and a little bit of money on the side to help them solve a
problem. As such, we are forced to root for the pirates: supposedly the killers
of the film industry (not multi-millionaire Hollywood producers). The comedy in
making the pirate copies is inventive and charming, supposedly done for the
right reasons.
And much like the pirate copies they make, Sam Voutas' film has its
charms and entertains. Though more perhaps could be done here. While the shot
of Big Wong wrapping an entire film reel around his body is clever, being a
comedy, this feels rather light, when it could be made more cinematic and demonstrate
the reasons why people love film in the first place. Little detail and back
story is given to the break-up of Big Wong's marriage and to how things were
before the camera starts rolling, and so his place as a good or bad father and
man is left ambiguous.
Though despite lacking in more depth, the script has enough humour
within it to maintain the film as a well-worked piece, helped by good
cinematography and good performances from the two leads. But with a limited
filmography as a director himself, Voutas' film comes across more as the work
of someone who likes cinema very much, but perhaps lacks the depth of the true
love of the cinephile.
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