Cable Public Library

The Forest Lodge Library continues its My Favorite Films series on Thursday, October 14th at 6:30 p.m. with a screening of the 1996 Chinese film, The King of Masks.

The King of Masks is a skilled master of an ancient art. In his tradition, the trade may only be passed along to a male heir and this aged performer has lost his son and seems to have no prospects to find a suitable apprentice, until he purchases a lively and cooperative child on the black market. He thinks the child is a boy. It is not.

In a 4/29/1999 N.Y.Times review of the film Janet Maslin says, “….The King of Masks is a Chinese film with pageantry, a magic act and adorable children to recommend it. And the pet monkey doesn't hurt, either. Its story is told gently and without excess sentimentality, even if that story proves less exotic than the setting (provincial Sichuan in 1930) suggests. The film, a winner of multiple Oscar-like Golden Roosters in China, works nicely as the simple tale of a lonely old man, the child he befriends and the cross-dressing that affects everyone in various ways.”