King of the Children

King of the Children is a 1987 drama film directed by Chen Kaige and starring Chen Shaohua. The film was based on a novella of the same name by Ah Cheng. The film competed for the Palme D'Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

A young man is sent to teach at a rural school in a poverty stricken area of Yunnan province.

Cast

Chen Shaohua
Xie Yuan
Yang Xuewen

Reception

King of the Children received a highly positive review in Time Out, where a reviewer wrote, “There are echoes here of a film like Padre Padrone, but Chen's film is completely free of flabby humanist sentimentality. By Chinese standards, this is film-making brave to the point of being visionary. By any standards, this follow-up to Yellow Earth and The Big Parade is also something like a masterpiece.”