King of the Children
Original title: Hai zi wang
1987 · 1 h 46 min
Chen KaigeCast
Xie Yuan Yang Xuewen Chen Shaohua
Credits
Written by: Cheng Ah
Plot
A young man sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution is made a village schoolteacher. He drops the rote teaching of slogans and tries to make the children think for themselves.
Sinekatalog’s take
Chen Kaige's drama sends a young man from the Cultural Revolution to teach in a village school, where he drops rote slogans to help children think. Quiet and layered, with fine landscapes, it is a subtle, moving fable on education.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.
Ratings
IMDb: 7.1 / 10 (746 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.
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