Shadow( or Ying: Based on the Ying and the Yang symbol) is a 2018 Chinese film that has critical acclaim all over the world for the film's fresh take on Chinese history through a different style of fighting never before seen by audiences. Zhang Yimou( Hero, House of Flying Daggers, The Great Wall) directed the film as a famous world known director. Popular Chinese actor, Deng Chao stars in a dual role along side Sun Li, Zheng Kai, Wang Qianyuan, Hu Jun, and, Guan Xiaotong. It was also screened at the film festivals in Canada, London, and France.
In a war between kingdoms, A banished royal general puts his plan for revenge in motion against the kingdom that he had served for many years. To do this, he searches out a man that looks like a split image of himself and plants him in the kingdom in his place.
If people are going to watch Shadow expecting a mindless Martial Arts film, you will be very disappointed. Shadow is promoted to audiences in it's trailer like the film will be a high impact action epic film- which is delivered to viewers, Just not in a consistent fashion. You actually get a solid storyline in this film that most who know the current formula of the action films coming out of China/Hong Kong/Taiwan aren't very use to. It's a DEEP storyline too and each event that plays out on the screen causes you to pay more attention if you want to keep up with every corner covered in the film. There's not a whole bunch of action until the latter half of the film. The best part about the action is the unconventional way that a fan is used as a weapon. Also, how Zhang Yang inserts old Chinese culture into the mean behind the character's actions: such as a women's feminine movements while holding a fan transferred over to battle or the playing of instruments to entertain rich emotion. Many of the Chinese culture references might be lost on non Chinese viewers but that doesn't take away from the showcase of beauty that is Chinese culture tied to Shadow's foundation. I believe the characters are based on people who are known in China's history. My biggest problem with Shadow was that the plot let my down when presenting a balance between strong storytelling and action. I got more introduced to the peachy element of Shadow shown through the talking scenes, which could come off as boring to those with short attention spans. You have to sit through a lot of talking outside of the brief training scenes, until the major battle. Not to say Shadow doesn't still delivery in mystery and thrills though.
Some of the acting was better than the action in my opinion. The actions scenes are beautifully done but it wasn't as much of these scenes as I hoped it would be. So you get a film mostly full of dialogue. Each performance really makes you take a step back to understand the artistic essence created from Director's Zhang Yimou's vision. All tension being felt from the character interactions are a nice appetizer leading into what was to come. No other film out of China has had such a deep though provoking story in recent years and it's kind of a shame that this aspect of Shadow isn't promoted as much as the action element…. Which isn't even the most dominate feature to this film. Instead you get labels such as "The best action in years" stuck on this film when it should say " one of the best Chinese feature tales to come out of China in recent years". [INSERT ME LAUGHING.]
The cinematography is another thing that made this film much a masterpiece. Rain has a lot to do with some of the reasons behind the fighting style used with the woman umbrella. All of the scenes have this downcast grey look like how the inside of a house looks on a cloudy day before rain starts to fall. Choosing to shoot Shadow in this way really gives a dark anesthetic to the film's atmosphere. Even the shots on location shown from different angles consisting of close ups then far off shots set the tone for a story not easily forgotten.
Shadow is a great film if you want a Chinese film with a meaningful story that serves a little epic action on the side. Don't go into this film thinking that you will get an action packed experience without having to think too much. China has completely destroyed their film market pumping out these bad quality films every year. At least Shadow saved the Chinese film market a little bit last year.
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