7 Faces of Dr. LaoMovies like 7 Faces of Dr. Lao
- Key Features:
- Magical realism, Small town, Self-discovery, Mythical creatures, Moral lesson, Outsider perspective, Transformation, Circus, Allegory, Social commentary, Hope, Optimism
- Tone:
- whimsical, humorous, earnest
- Target Audience:
- Fantasy fans, Classic film enthusiasts, Family audiences, Those seeking uplifting stories
- Emotional Arc:
- Intrigue → Wonder → Reflection
7 Faces of Dr. Lao

An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
When the Goddess of Happiness tosses the Longevity Monk and his disciples out of heaven (because the Monkey King tried to attain immortality), the Monkey King is reincarnated as the Joker. He now spends his time chasing two jealous women. When one of them is dying, the Joker goes back in time in an attempt to save her.

An Inuit hunter races his sled home with a fresh-caught halibut. This fish pervades the entire film, in real and imaginary form. Meanwhile, Axel tags fish in New York as a naturalist's gofer. He's happy there, but a messenger arrives to bring him to Arizona for his uncle's wedding. It's a ruse to get Axel into the family business. In Arizona, Axel meets two odd women: vivacious, needy, and plagued by neuroses and familial discord. He gets romantically involved with one, while the other, rich but depressed, plays accordion tunes to a gaggle of pet turtles.

A naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.

When a fellow scientist asks for Jack's help in locating the mausoleum of China's first emperor, the past collides violently with the present as Jack discovers his amazing visions are based in fact.

After receiving word about a mysterious carcass/skeleton unearthed in the Arizona desert, a father and his daughter decide to remove it from the burial grounds for further study. Once they do so, they, as well as the town, are besieged by a colony of gargoyles living in some nearby caverns.

An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.

A turn of the century wild west show struggling to make a living in Mexico comes into the possession of a tiny prehistoric horse. This leads to an expedition to the Forbidden Valley where they discover living dinosaurs. They capture one and take it back to be put on display, leading to inevitable mayhem.

After leaving Washington D.C. hospital, plastic surgeon Ben Stone heads for California, where a lucrative practice in Beverly Hills awaits. After a car accident, he's sentenced to perform as the community's general practitioner.

Follows the journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. He finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration.

Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus illusionist and con-artist, is whisked from Kansas to the Land of Oz where the inhabitants assume he's the great wizard of prophecy, there to save Oz from the clutches of evil.

The world is on the brink of catastrophe in a chaotic age where evil demons roam. In order to keep evil at bay, a mysterious organisation from the pugilist world emerges. A new constable and a young girl with a mysterious past are also drawn into this group, and the group embarks on an incredible adventure.

John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Indians, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.

While visiting family in Mexico, a lonely boy befriends a mythical creature hiding on his grandfather's ranch and embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.

Two young horse traders guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter rugged terrain, the cutthroat Clegg gang, hospitable Navajo, and moral challenges on the journey.

A new patient mysteriously appears in a psychiatric ward. He claims to come from another planet to study humans and their behavior. The alien is gentle but criticizes humans for their harsh treatment of each other. The assigned psychiatrist is himself unhappy, and affected by the patient's insight. But he is ordered to treat the patient according to institutional procedure.

Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner aching for a male descendent to learn his rare and dying art.

A rogue scientist near a small desert town arouses the suspicion of the town's doctor when his lab assistant is found dead from a case of acromegaly, which took only four days to develop. As the doctor investigates, aided by the scientist's new female assistant, they discover that something is devouring local cattle and humans in increasingly large quantities.

At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus leads his troupe through the devastated American landscape, lifting the spirits of audiences along the way. During their travels, they discover a man without limbs at a carnival sideshow. However, after an intriguing encounter with the showman, he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.

When a woman visits a Chinese doctor, she discovers her pain is due to pent-up rage, and the only cure is to fully express herself, whatever may come.

Rocks from a meteor which grow when in contact with water threaten a sleepy Southwestern desert community.

Fidencio Borer, an apothecary in a village on the northern border of Mexico, discovers some old title of a mine in Arizona and decides to claim them. Trying to cross the border is a border guard intercepted by exaggerating in the line of duty. On the way is captured by a tribe of Apaches and is about to be burned alive, but thanks to the Great Head Horse Lying having toothache and learns that the prisoner it can heal, ordered his release on the condition that the cure. Fidencio would take the wheel and gets the eternal friendship of the Chief apache.

Circus owner Matt Masters is beset by disasters as he attempts a European tour of his circus. At the same time, he is caught in an emotional bind between his adopted daughter and her mother.

The construction of the Great Western Railroad creates heavy conflict between the railway company and neighboring Indian tribes. Worse, criminal gang leader Santer sets his eyes on a gold mine located on holy Indian land and influences the construction supervisor to re-rout the planned railroad straight through Apache land. Old Shatterhand, who works as a measurement technician, discovers the evil plan and searches contact with the Apaches in an effort to avert war.

A struggling circus crew gets deceived by its former partner, as it embarks on a tour in Thailand. During the journey through a Southeast Asian rainforest, they encounter attacks by a giant python. They meet a mysterious man named Jeff who offers to help, but they soon realize he's a poacher. As they search for Jeff's boat, they face life-and-death struggles with the python and Jeff himself.

One day a young woman named Blanca is saved by Xuan, a snake catcher from a nearby village. She has lost her memory, and together they go on a journey to discover her real identity, developing deeper feelings for one another along the way. But as they learn more about her past, they uncover a darker plot of supernatural forces vying for power, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Rory MacNeil, a rugged old Scotsman, reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island and travels to San Francisco to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son, Rory sees his life transformed through a newly found bond with his baby grandson.

An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.

The everyday life of accountant Levante, his family and the other people of a small town in the Tuscan countryside is taken by storm by the serendipitous arrival of five gorgeous Spanish flamenco dancers.

A young elephant, whose oversized ears enable him to fly, helps save a struggling circus, but when the circus plans a new venture, Dumbo and his friends discover dark secrets beneath its shiny veneer.

On a golden afternoon, wildly curious young Alice tumbles into the burrow and enters the merry, madcap world of Wonderland full of whimsical escapades.

In a mystical desert kingdom, young martial arts fighter Cord loses a contest to determine who will journey to take the powerful Book of All Knowedge from Zetan, an evil wizard. Despite his lack of a sponsor, Cord's rule-breaking nature leads him to try retrieving the book anyway. Help is offered by a mysterious blind man who gives advice as Cord fights his way through multiple opponents, discovering more about himself as he gets closer to Zetan.

A young half-Navajo convict dying of cancer forces a yuppie doctor to drive him to a magic healing lake.

A twelve-year-old girl is transported by a magical black stallion to the mystical world of Albion, where she discovers that she alone is the key to saving an entire race of people.

A stranger in a Western cattle-town behaves with remarkable self-assurance, establishing himself as a man to be reckoned with. The reason appears with his stock: a herd of sheep, which he intends to graze on the range. The horrified inhabitants decide to run him out at all costs.

Grand Canyon revolved around six residents from different backgrounds whose lives intertwine in modern-day Los Angeles. At the center of the film is the unlikely friendship of two men from different races and classes brought together when one finds himself in jeopardy in the other's rough neighborhood.

Maynard, a beloved local businessman is mistaken for the legendary Bigfoot during an inebriated romp through town in a makeshift gorilla costume. The sightings set off an international Bigfoot media spectacle and a windfall of tourism dollars for a simple American town hit by hard times. When Brock Masterson, reality TV’s “Monster Hunter,” arrives to hunt the beast, Maynard agonizes over whether to come clean, destroying the rebirth of his beloved town, or perpetuate the inadvertent hoax.

An elderly gentleman goes for what he assumes will be an ordinary day at the amusement park, only to find himself in the midst of a hellish nightmare.

Four unwitting heroes cross paths on their journey to the sleepy town of Silverado. Little do they know the town where their family and friends reside has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and a murderous posse. It's up to the sharp-shooting foursome to save the day, but first they have to break each other out of jail, and learn who their real friends are.

When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt.

A young man, Aren, is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making white people’s lives easier.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake is an ancient Chinese fable about a woman demon who falls in love with a mortal is brought to life through the latest advances in CGI and action techniques.

By his dying father's last wish Joe is sent to the Wild West to become a real guy. The dreamy young man despises guns and fights likes poems and prefers bicycles to horses. Now his three teachers footpads all of them shall teach him otherwise. This doesn't work until Joe has to defend himself against gunman Morton who's jealous of Joe's love to rancher Ohlsen's beautiful daughter.

A bright young yeti finds something he thought didn't exist—a human. News of this “smallfoot” throws the simple yeti community into an uproar over what else might be out there in the big world beyond their snowy village.

A bedtime story leads Littlefoot and his grandparents on a journey to a new land, where Littlefoot discovers someone who vanished before he was born: his father! Now Littlefoot must decide between two worlds. Will he leave to be with his friends in the Great Valley, or stay behind and start a new life with his father?

Expert conman Joe Thanks teams up with half-breed Bill and naive Lucy to steal $300,000 from the Indian-hating Major Cabot. Their elaborate plan is full of disguises, double-crosses, and chases, but Joe always seems to know what he's doing.

A small town in Texas finds itself under attack from a hungry, fifty-foot-long gila monster. No longer content to forage in the desert, the giant lizard begins chomping on motorists and train passengers before descending upon the town itself. Only Chase Winstead, a quick-thinking mechanic, can save the town from being wiped out.

An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.

The life of the owners of Circus Esperança, Puro Sangue e Pangaré, father and son, who plays two clowns. At a certain point, Pangaré starts showing tiredness and sadness for being an unhappy clown.

A man on the run from his own sins, finds himself in a small border town in Texas, impersonating a reverend. The town are quickly drawn to the man's unorthodox sermons, but so is a police chief who has his suspicions.

Two guys, one of them a magician, are transporting an ancient chinese vampire who can only be controlled by a series of yellow tapes, and is the ancestor of the other guy. On the way, while flying over Africa, their plane stalls. And of all places, where do they land? That's right, in the village of the tribe of "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

Victims of oppressive town boss Honey are offered help by an unusual alliance of gunmen and circus performers

Dr. Dempsey, an American scientist, is sent to Scotland to disprove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. He is shocked when Laura, an inn-keeper, introduces him to a small family of Nessie-dinosaurs.

A stick-wielding monkey teams with a young girl on an epic quest for immortality, battling demons, dragons, gods — and his own ego — along the way.

In a small Spanish town, during the Christmas holidays, a group of rich old ladies organize a peculiar event that consists of inviting a homeless person to sit down to dinner at their wealthy table. Plácido, a humble worker, is hired by the organizers to participate in a parade with his three-wheeled vehicle, a seemingly simple mission that will not be easy for him to accomplish.

When a golden opportunity arises to boost the fortunes of a forgotten fishing town, its residents set out to trick their way to making it happen.

An imaginative elephant named Horton hears a faint cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Horton suspects there may be life on that speck and despite a surrounding community, who thinks he has lost his mind, he is determined to save the tiny particle.

As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.

In a mission in China in 1935, a group of women are preyed on by Mongolian bandits, led by Warlord chief Tunga Khan.

On the run after committing murder, an accountant encounters a strange Native American man who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.

When Littlefoot grandfather falls ill, The dinosaurs only way to cure him is a flower in the forbidding land of mist which hold unexpecting perils and danger.

History Professor Brad Fletcher heads west for his health, but falls in with Soloman Bennett's outlaw gang. Fascinated by their way of life, Fletcher finally takes over the gang, leading with a new 'efficient' ruthlessness.

A grizzled, hard-of-hearing cowboy, Slim, and his two friends, Dusty and Pete, capture a mysterious, well-dressed Frenchman.

A trio of unemployed silent film actors are mistaken for real heroes by a small Mexican village in search of someone to stop a malevolent bandit.

A group of misfits encounter a young Yeti named Everest, and they set off to reunite the magical creature with his family on the mountain of his namesake.

Young fantasy and science fiction aficionado Gavin Gore and his friends stumble onto some huge footprints in the woods. A local cop, reporter, and a renowned Sasquatch authority investigate, while two of Gavin's dim-witted neighbors hatch a scheme to profit from the situation.

Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town, while dispensing his his own quirky brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by.

While trying to free her sister from Fahai's clutches, Xiao Qing winds up in a dystopian city and meets a mysterious man who can't recall his past life.

This sequel to "Pandora's Box" continues director Jeffrey Lau's adaptation of the Buddhism saga "Journey to the West". Stranded five centuries in the past, Joker Monkey King must battle a variety of monsters, seductive women and super-powered villains to save the dying Pak Jing-Jing.

Four men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (which is so old that it is dripping unstable nitroglycerin) across dangerous jungle terrain.

Who or what exactly is a Heffalump? The lovable residents of the Hundred Acre Wood -- Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga and the rest of the pack -- embark on a journey of discovery in search of the elusive Heffalump. But as is always the case, this unusual road trip opens their eyes to so much more than just the creature they're seeking.

When a series of martial misunderstandings spirals into an international incident, a Chinese martial arts student struggling to relate to his new Japanese wife is forced to take on seven of Japan's most powerful martial arts masters, each an expert in a different discipline, ranging from karate to samurai to ninjitsu.

At Beijing World Park, a bizarre cross-pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center where visitors can interact with famous international monuments without ever leaving the city’s suburbs, a security guard betrays his dancer girlfriend by pursuing another woman.

Littlefoot and his friends the gang in their next when a swarm of leaf gobblers had destroyed their homes and this forces them to find a new home but yet find an mysterious island.

When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.

Liam Liu unwittingly gets involved with a high school girl. He suddenly has to go to China after learning from his father that he has inherited his grandmother's home in Shanghai. He's not very appreciative of his Chinese roots, and at first, only wants to sell the house and get back to the U.S. as fast as possible. He gets a taste of the Chinese culture and ends up having some big decisions to make.

An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.

Precocious young Harriet and her older sister Gwen live at their mother's motel in small-town New Hampshire. Harriet dreams of a life beyond her inattentive family and the stultifying town. A mentally disabled man named Ricky comes to stay at the motel, and Harriet finds him kinder and more interesting than anyone she has ever met. After tragedy strikes, Harriet and Ricky cling to each other ever more tightly.

In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

Clay is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend, Earl, kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife, Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with the affair. Clay unknowingly befriends a serial killer named Lester Long who murders the widow in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy."

A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his new doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality and causing him to question his identity.

A shaman from the South American rain forest visits France for a public relations campaign. In a hotel's elevator in Paris he meets a French good-for-nothing named Perrin he's fascinated with. He follows Perrin to his flat and although Perrin is not very enthusiastic about so much interest in his person, he lets the shaman spend the night in his flat. After an official meeting on the next day being part of the PR campaign the shaman suffers from a heart attack. Hardly being able to speak and laying in a hospital bed he demands to see Perrin. The latter is not very interested in meeting the shaman again. However it looks like it is to late for animosities as the shaman and Perrin seem to be tied mentally somehow since they've met in the elevator.

A kindly English botanist and a gruff American promoter lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.

Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi's green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.

A virtually plotless, gaudy, impressionistic portrait of Rome through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens.

The comedic adventures of an introverted boy left on the doorstep of a pair of reluctant, eccentric great-uncles, whose exotic remembrances stir the boy's spirit and re-ignite the men's lives.

Two troubled men face their terrible destinies and events of their past as they join together on a mission to find the Holy Grail and thus to save themselves.

Security guard Pickle and his trash collector friend Belly Button kill time together in night shifts watching the American-educated boss's dash-cam recordings of his various sexual encounters with women. Against the buddies' will, something horrifying rather than erotic reveals.

The story throws Elvis impersonators, Indians, modern cowboys, a 6-foot-tall blond assassin, a frat boy, a corrupt sheriff and a prostitute into a chase for a priceless American Indian artifact stolen during a poker game at an Indian casino

Jamie is a boorish, insensitive American twentysomething traveling in Chile, who somehow manages to create chaos at every turn. He and his friends are planning on taking a road trip north to experience a legendary shamanistic hallucinogen called the San Pedro cactus. In a fit of drunkenness at a wild party, Jamie invites an eccentric woman—a radical spirit named Crystal Fairy—to come along.

Once upon a time a wise and kind old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Totò, enters an orphanage. Totò leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. But when greedy developers threaten the community’s land, Totò will need all the help he can get in order to find an impossible way out.

A suicidal artist goes into the desert, where he finds his doppelgänger, a homicidal drifter.

Three men living in the Eastern most island of China go on a road trip to the Western most end of the country, and facing crises of love, friendship, and faith on their journey to the West.

Bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss is transformed into a manic superhero when he wears a mysterious mask.

Carl Fredricksen spent his entire life dreaming of exploring the globe and experiencing life to its fullest. But at age 78, life seems to have passed him by, until a twist of fate (and a persistent 8-year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell) gives him a new lease on life.

An orphaned brontosaurus named Littlefoot sets off in search of the legendary Great Valley. A land of lush vegetation where the dinosaurs can thrive and live in peace. Along the way he meets four other young dinosaurs, each one a different species, and they encounter several obstacles as they learn to work together in order to survive.

Balloon kingdoms, dopey police dragons and happy wizards are exactly how Terry remembered his Grandmother's whacky fairy tales. Except they are real and it's definitely not as 'cheerful.'

With darkness encroaching on the island of Mata Nui, the only hope for the survival of the islanders rests with two Matoran villagers, who must find the seventh Toa and deliver to him the fabled Mask of Light.

An American cowboy living in Mexico discovers his cattle is being eaten by a giant prehistoric dinosaur.

