Qi wang

To some people "King of Chess" may seem like another melodramatic Tony Leung outing, but below the surface it's a deep film that is in a way a political satire that uses symbolism to tell it's story. This film is actually two stories in one; one being the main story of a child prodigy who can predict the future and utilizes this to play perfect chess, the second being the flashbacks of Ching (John Sham) who is reminded of his tumultuous past during the Cultural Revolution of the late 60's where he knew of another wise King of Chess and the mass movement and malnourishment of people led to the eating of snakes, cats and violence amongst friends. When the story of the young prodigy unravels as some learn to exploit his powers, the story of time spent in the Cultural Revolution pulls you in to make you constantly want to learn what happened next.

Even though, the film doesn't have the largest amount of excitement you constantly have concern for the people in Ching's past and the sheer emotion in the characters turmoil as the loss of home and family drives some people to sacrifice as the lowly chess master must win the title of King of Chess to regain himself and his past fortune. This is one relatively unknown film that is enjoyable to watch not only because of the story, but because of the sheer fact that you feel as if you become part of these people's story! The climatic finale to this film is not to be taken literally but is a symbolic representation of the characters true interests.

Although seemingly co-directed by Yim Ho, King of Chess has Tsui Hark written all over it, with Hark taking full control later in production leading Ho to disown the movie entirely, the end result mixes their styles but Hark's is way more prevalent than Ho's historical melodrama. The decidedly goofy comedic beats and experimental editing feel out of place for a movie like this, dealing directly with the uneasy history of Mainland China under Mao - Hark's movies often take a more symbolic or allegoric stance on the matter, so makes for a nice stylistic discrepancy in his filmography. However, the cross-cutting narrative between Mao's China and 90s Taiwan draws up some interesting results of paralleling struggles and combined with Lo Ta-yu's infectious synth-driven musical score leads to a movie never quite in focus and equal parts infuriating as it is charming in a way only Tsui Hark can deliver.