Chess King

Chess King (1988)

TMDb

5.5

01/01/1988 • 1h 28m
original-title

棋王

status

Released

production-companies

Xi'an Film Studio

original-language

Mandarin

budget

-

revenue

-

In a small southern frontier town, an old man called “Nail Li” boasts about his chess skills by nailing a general piece to the board, challenging anyone to remove it. During this era, many young people moved to the countryside. The town’s new party secretary, played by Niu Ben, was angry after losing a game and sent his team to the city to find talents in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Wang Yisheng, a Beijing youth known as “The Chess Fool,” was mistakenly labeled a counter-revolutionary during the Cultural Revolution but was saved by those searching for him. Unconcerned about his destination, he was content with food and chess, saying, “What can relieve my worries? Only playing chess.” He became engrossed in the game, leaving memorable matches with various masters in the unfamiliar town.

director
production-countries

China

spoken-languages

Mandarin

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