If it weren't for its period details and place in Chinese history, The King Of Masks—the fable-like first movie in a decade by director Wu Tianming (Old Well, Life)—wouldn't be that different from any run-of-the-mill kiddie film in which an old man opens his heart to an orphan. Poor Zhu Xu is lonely and old, so he seeks out a young apprentice to take up his family art of mask magic. He desperately scours the black market for a boy and takes home Zhou Renying, who turns out to be a girl, much to his consternation. But try as he might, Zhu can't stop loving the kid, despite all the trouble she stirs up. The situations the protagonists encounter are right out of Dickens, but they also mirror several of the classic Judge Bao stories that permeate Chinese culture, especially once Zhu is mistakenly arrested as a kidnapper. As in many of the Bao tales, confessions are arrived at through torture, and accumulated misunderstandings amount to a mountain of trouble, until some wise and prudent individual steps in as the requisite deus ex machina. Though it addresses some old-school gender issues and paints some strong portraits of poverty, The King Of Masks is all a little too simple. Yet, subtitles aside, kids should dig it all, right down to the colorful scenes showing the famous Chinese Opera in action.