But he is still the uncle Zhuo we are familiar with. Even though, he no longer has his iconic attire in silent films, even though, he speaks, even as the emperor's noble status. He is still the one who is not an authority, resists absurdity and modernization, sincerely and lovably performs Chaplin.
This New York king, although he is a royal family, is a king in exile. Although there is a nuclear bomb project, it is just an empty shell. Although he was full of self-esteem, he had to make an advertisement because of the embarrassment, and suffered from flesh and blood. This is the noble status that the people of the world think of. Such an status is not so much above 10,000 people as it is a burden, not so much as a vagrancy with no name.
In the United States where McCarthyism prevails, the media is rampant, and hidden cameras and monitors are everywhere, there is no freedom of speech. Fearful people live crampedly in the modernized urban machinery. The towering buildings, the noisy modern music, and even the fire hydrants in the elevators have all become the culprits that interfere with the normal life of the exiled prince. Where is free New York. It's just a desert whitewashed by modernization.
The King of New York still has not left the matrix of Chaplin's movies—the alienation caused by modernization, the struggle between individuals and authority, and the freedom of individuals, but there is more sadness. This old man who is almost rare but still agile, In the twilight years, he reluctantly responded to the various powers and restrictions on freedom in modern society, and reluctantly protested the monitoring of personal freedom and the terrible media's ruthless invasion of individual space.
In the end, he left this mere "free" capital.
His utopia is not here.
View more about A King in New York reviews
