King of Peking

Both a love letter to the cinema and a beautiful meditation on father-son relationships, “King of Peking” follows Big Wong through 1990s Beijing as he desperately looks for a business idea that will allow him to make spousal payments and keep custody of his young son, Little Wong. One day, Big Wong—a movie-theater projectionist—has a brilliant idea: He and his son will secretly tape the blockbuster films that play at the theater and sell them on DVD in the lucrative bootleg market. The plan goes off without a hitch, but Little Wong can’t shake the guilt he feels over their crimes. As Little Wong begins to question his father’s influence and ponders returning to live with his mother, who works on a train, Big Wong wrestles with how far he can go to provide for his son. This joyful, heartwarming film—which tips its hat to “Cinema Paradiso”—is a bona fide crowdpleaser.