AROUND TOWN: Charleston Heights Center to present Mandarin Film Series

As the Jan. 26 Chinese New Year celebration draws near, the city of Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services offers a three-part Mandarin Film Series at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St.

The films will be presented on three consecutive Thursday evenings starting Jan. 8. Two of the three films are in the Mandarin language with English subtitles. The other one is in English.

All screenings start at 6:30 p.m. and tickets cost $3.

The series debuts with “The King of Masks,” a 1999 movie with subtitles set in the 1930s in the city of Sichuan. It is the story of a traveling magician who adopts a boy disciple and later finds out the boy is really a girl. The Motion Picture Association of America rated it PG-13.
“Iron & Silk,” the true story of an American man who comes to China to teach English and learn martial arts, will be shown Jan. 15. It was made in 1990 and is rated PG. “Iron & Silk” was filmed in English.

The last installment of the series, set for Jan. 22, is “The Road Home,” a 2000 love story about a teenage girl and a handsome schoolmaster who comes to her rural village during the Cultural Revolution. The film stars Zhang Ziyi (right), the actress who played the governor’s daughter in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Rated G, the movie has subtitles.

For more information, call 229-6383.