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I watched a weird movie and I want to talk about it. Shadow (2018) is a wuxia film by Zhang Yimou, the same guy who directed House of Flying Daggers and Hero among a bunch of others. It's also kind of weird but also pretty decent? Every creative decision is a strong choice and they're swinging for the fences.  It's legit very pretty in a stark way. Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw3LjaZlSLM It's also low key Cats (2019) levels of insane, just not as pervasive and all-encompassing. The plot and pacing are actually pretty slow, but every time it moves forward you'll be saying, "Wait, that's what we're doing? That can't be what we're doing. What? We're still doing this? This is really the way we're gonna tell this story?" And somehow it mostly lands. Or at least doesn't absolutely crash and burn. Seriously, I'm someone who thinks spoiler culture is kind of silly and who usually reads the wikipedia summary before he starts a movie and I'm telling you to just go watch this thing. I can't guarantee you'll like the movie, but it's a fascinating object and I think you'll appreciate it more if you don't see it coming. It's free on Tubi and Amazon and Pluto and all of the bullshit but serviceable C-tier streaming platforms. Grab a beverage, smoke a bowl, let this wash over you for two hours. Or just scroll down a bit to where I talk about it. Spoiler Discussion The movie opens with a card explaining the history of the kingdoms of Pei and Yang who fought forever over the city of Jing until a champion of Yang defeated one of the royal siblings of Pei in a duel. Now Yang occupies the city of Jing but Pei and Yang are allied powers and everything is peaceful, even though Pei and the formerly Pei residents of Jing chafe under Yang's boot. Then there's a shot of a woman looking through the keyhole of a large ornamental door. We are told she's going to make an incredibly important decision in another second. You will also forget all about this for roughly two real times hours of your life. The King of Pei wants to maintain the alliance but his brother The Commander is scheduled to fight another duel to win it back. However. Uh. gently caress, okay. The Commander isn't actually The Commander. The Real Commander didn't recover from his wounds sustained in the first duel and instead that character is his secret identical double that The Commander's uncle raised to win back the city of Jing. And also named him Jing City to be moderately confusing. Anyway, The Commander lives in a secret cave behind a hidden panel in his mansion while Jing City (the person) is learning to play the zheng, a kind of Chinese zither-like instrument, in order to impersonate the commander and win back Jing City (the city). Jing City's disguise is basically just playing the instrument and gouging the bejeezus out of his chest so he has a matching wound as The Commander. Despite constantly being told that these two characters look identical, their resemblances kind of begin and end at both being reasonably good-looking Chinese guys ; everyone has sufficiently elaborate and strongly designed costumes that actual facial similarities are lost. One of them could be Keith David and you wouldn't notice because everyone is wearing 27 pounds of silk and giant beaded hats. I'm glossing over some palace intrigue but most of the first hour of the movie is just laying out that insane premise. It's necessary, that is the point of the movie, but it's a lot. So Jing is trying to master the Pei combat umbrella for the duel. Yeah, the national weapon of Pei is an umbrella. Eventually in the climax it's going to be umbrellas with blades that spin around, but that's the upgraded form and it's pretty clear that everyone was fighting with bamboo parasols up until this point. The Yang meanwhile use an actual weapon designed for fighting. The fact that this could possibly be related to why the Yang have won the war up until now is never addressed. Obviously the problem is that they're using the umbrellas wrong and not that maybe they should buy, like, some swords. While training in umbrella fighting in the rain on a giant taiji/"yin-yang", as one does, The Real Commander's wife suggests that since umbrellas are a naturally feminine weapon(??), the correct solution is to use a yielding softer energy to counter the harsh aggressive fighting of Yang. (O look, isn't that clever. The wordplay, that is. Not that this wasn't addressed before, possibly when umbrellas as national defense was suggested). So she invents a new technique which is basically just fighting with the umbrella but you do a vaguely feminine little mince-shuffle at the very beginning of the fight before you fight normally but this time you win because the script says so. Jing needs to learn this technique so he spends a lot of time with The Commander's wife and now there's a protracted will-they-won't-they cuckolding element to the movie. As you do. The duel isn't actually the plan though! Really, it's just a distraction so that a bunch of guerrillas can retake the city from those perfidious Yang. There's some business with their training, but what I want to talk about now is our antagonists. We're informed that Pei is being oppressed, but we're never given specifics. In fact, we barely ever see the Yang outside of fight scenes. And when we do, they're shown to be pretty god drat reasonable. They're less evil and more mildly clueless and little bro-ey. The son of the main general is a dumb kid who accidentally insulted them during a marriage negotiation and otherwise they're just kind of there : there might be a reading where they're kind of like the high school jocks of medieval China, but to me they just came off like some dudes while the Pei are loving psychos who can't talk through their panoply of issues. Anyway, I promised bladed umbrellas :  Yeah, that's weapon that's gonna win the day for Pei. Especially when the guerilla fighters ride it like an even deadlier street luge and firing their wrist-mounted tiny crossbows. O did I not mention that part? Yeah, they catapult themselves en masse as a battle tactic using their weapons as sleds : they bumbershoot themselves :  Sadly the they didn't just foley in the sound of a pinball machine Everyone dies horrifically, obviously. Because the Yang are wearing armor and fighting with real weapons while the Pei are doing that. Sure they take back the city, but everyone outside of two people is dead. There's another 20 minutes of movie after this. Somehow. The Real Commander and the King murder each other. Jing City pretends to be The Real Commander and we end with The Real Commander's wife watching through the door, debating if she's going to back up his story. I'm sorry this rambled, but what the hell did I watch last night. I kind of liked it, but really it's more that I respect its chutzpah. There's a more functional movie in there, but it's a much more boring one even if it's a lot neater. Go watch this movie. It's pretty and weird.
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Feb 19, 2023 00:58
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 08:13 |
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I remember watching this in theatres when it came out and absolutely loving it. The scenes where it's more or less silent except for the sound of rain are just so wonderfully peaceful. You're right that it's a visually stunning film, kind of like a black and white partner to Hero's colour-themed stories.
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Feb 19, 2023 01:26
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It legit looks like most of the movie is done in ink and most of it’s practical rather than CG. There’s CG too, but like most of the lighting was just doing it on rainy days.
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Feb 19, 2023 01:49
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I watched this movie a couple of years ago because in my head I was wondering "hey did Zhang Yimou direct another wuxia movie after House of Flying Daggers" and the answer was yeah he did! This movie is a bit confusing in terms of plotting but it was still cool to watch. And, y'know, it is full of real proper cinema, in the sense of color blocking and shot composition, since it's all about going for a monochrome aesthetic but not actually shooting in black and white. It's not as cool and good as Hero but it's still pretty good, because Hero is awesome.
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Feb 19, 2023 14:08
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I watched this last year and echoing that it was very cool. I really dug the aesthetic and those umbrellas are so awesome. Deng Chao did a great with the roles. The generals armor also rules.
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Feb 19, 2023 19:22
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 08:13 |
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MacheteZombie posted:I watched this last year and echoing that it was very cool. I really dug the aesthetic and those umbrellas are so awesome. Deng Chao did a great with the roles. The generals armor also rules. Thinking through it, there's something clever about the knife umbrellas given how rainy the movie is. Also, a substantial portion of the theatre I was in burst into quiet approving noises when Qingping kills Yang Ping.
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Feb 19, 2023 19:49
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