Zhang Yimou's SHADOW reviewed

Well Go USA
Entertainment

presents

Shadow / Ying

Directed by Zhang Yimou

Starring: Deng Chao, Sun Li, Zheng Kai, Wang Qianyuan,

Wang Jingchun, Hu Jun, Guan Xiaotong, and Leo Wu

China/Hong Kong, 2018, 115 minutes

Director Zhang Yimou's most recent martial arts (wuxia) film Shadow was released on digital on-demand, Blu-ray + DVD combo pack and DVD back on May 03, 2019. It was not until recently, however, that I managed to watch it (on Blu-ray).

Zhang, of course, has had a varied career, both in terms of the type of films he's directed and their reception. (He also has been involved in stage productions and in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.) He is known for the films he directed featuring Gong Li and later Zhang Ziyi (no relation) early in their careers. His previous martial arts films include Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

Whereas Hero had sections themed with different vibrant colors, Shadow features "a canvas of inky blacks and greys punctuated with bursts of color from the blood of the defeated" (Well Go USA's spot-on description). Set in an ancient period in which three rival kingdoms competed for power, including control of a great walled city, the film's title comes from the look-alike (i.e., a "shadow") that an injured military commander employs to convince others that he is still alive and healthy.

Shadow has a good story line and terrific action sequences. It also has a fanciful use of umbrellas as deadly weapons! Definitely a "must-see."

Disc Specs:
-- Audio
    -- Mandarin Dolby Atmos in Dolby True HD
    --  English Dolby Digital 5.1
-- Subtitles
    -- English
    -- Traditional Chinese
    -- Simplified Chinese
-- Bonus
    -- Making Of
      -- About the Double
      -- The Director
      -- The Unknown Side of Zhang Yimou
      -- Behind the Scenes
      -- Heroes
      -- Deng Chao
      -- Zheng Kai
  -- International Trailer
  -- U.S. Trailer
-- Previews
    -- Ip Man 4
    -- Legend of the Demon Cat
    -- Better Days
    -- Freaks

AsianCIneFest Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended

Shadow is available from Amazon Prime (click here), on 4K UHD + Blu-ray, Blu-ray + DVD combo pack, and DVD  

ACF 1449: JOU DU playing at the Walter Reade Theater tomorrow

Ju Dou

Directed by Zhang Yimou 

China/Japan, 1990, 95 minutes

In Chinese with English subtitles

When: Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 6:15 PM

Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center

Walter Reade Theater

165 West 65th Street, NYC

Info and tickets available here

Enjoy $25 Dinner & a Movie!

The Film Society of Lincoln Center continues its celebration of 50 Years of the New York Film Festival with tomorrow night's screening of Ju Dou, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li:

Master filmmaker Zhang Yimou (RAISE THE RED LANTERN, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) made the second of six NYFF appearances with this visually stunning, sexually charged melodrama set in a dye factory in rural China at the turn of the 20th century. When the sadistic factory owner takes a third wife (having murdered the first two), his nephew finds himself falling for the woman, named Ju Dou (played by the ravishing Gong Li, in one of her first major roles).

They soon embark on an affair and conceive a child, which the owner believes to be his. But as the years pass, the truth gradually bubbles to the surface, and a series of lurid twists and turns set the characters on a tragic collision course with the fates. Shot in eye-popping color by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Changwei Gu (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE), JU DOU was banned by Chinese authorities, but nevertheless went on to become the country’s first-ever Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.