Shadow

This film will be well remembered, not for its ink paint style of cinematography, but for its characters, dialogue and ensemble performance. Deng Chao, who plays both the Shadow and the Commander at a time and can be often seen in the same frame with the help of marvellous visual effects, deserves all the attention and compliments for his commitment to acting. Didn't expect the adapted-from-historical-events drama turns out to be an action thriller ending with heavy blood stains, and the film almost reminded me of Feng Xiao-Gang's "The Banquet" when the ending credits rolled. But then, when I thought of the body moves of the Shadow, the Commander and his wife among Yin and Yang in the fight-practicing scene, and those tender moments between Shadow and his love, and their passion covered or burned through eye contact and physical distance in the light and the dark, I realised this is a Zhang Yimou film. The craftsmanship is simply for storytelling!

When I watched "HERO" I just loved it. I fell love with the worldbuilding and the colorful settings and the choreographes were one of a kind. So, "Ying" comes out and it really looks different. I tried to avoid any advertsiment and I went blind. The result... "Ying" is worth watching, although it has its flaws I guess. Let's start with the good news: The cinematography is something you must... experience. I like that the whole film is driven by the ying and yiang symbol and it's a black and white film without being black and white. Both the production and the costume design is impeccable and even the ones who hate such stylish films ought to show a bit of respect for the work done. Almost every shot can be used as a wallpaper and although some shots were bleak or fake, the film's presentation is one of a kind. The souundtrack is also great. The instrument used provokes a lot of emotion and I actually felt that the sound editing and mixing were used in a unique way. The music speaks for itself and creates a weird but interesting tone. The battle sequences and the training were both expertly shot and the choreograhy was great and never felt too pretentious. As for the script... it's good... but not my thing. I actually felt that the script wasn't sure about where it was going. It's like a liitle it of everything and I cannot say I was connected with the story. I still don't know what it wanted to be... What I made about it was that it tried to illustrate how it is quite impossible to have a ying and a yang and find balance and peace. Thing will always be shacky and it also illustrated the games of power and grid and how everone will do anything for power. I loved the action sequences and the script was a nice of writing, but the dynamics and the character arcs were never 10/10 so that I could be fully into it. The acting is overall good, it's just that Chao Deng played both the potagonist, who is a silent force and the old man, who is a crazy maniac and even if he did handle the 2 different roles pretty good I felt that he overacted while playing the old man. It was probably froced, but I just hateit when they are overacting. Overall, this film is good. It is brillliantly shot , the technical aspects are almost perfect and a lot of choices in the story were clever and differed the movie from silly blockbusters or cliches. A good, stylish, Chinese watch with characters always seeking for acceptance and longing for power. Its impressive shots and great visual direction are what making this film a good watch and are the reason why I am giving it an 8/10. It's closer to a seven than to a nine, but an 8 will do.

Beautiful. The photography , the craft of tension, the acting, , at the level of fight scenes- real spectacular, admirable made. And the impression of ink painting is one of its high gifts. Another virtues - the resurrection of memories about Kurasawa universe, few drops of Shakespeare tragedies and the image of "shadow". A beautiful film, a decent- in large measure - tale and the feel to discover the cold water of a familiar lake.

I just ended up seeing this movie without any expectations, The movie was great, The cinematography was well done , visually stunning and properly executed, The movie was a bit lengthy but slowly picked up the pace, definitely recommended...

I'm never a big fan of Mr. Zhang Yimou especially in recent two decades. To me his all time best movie is "To Live"(1994). After 2000, since "Hero", his movies seems only focused on creating pretty images but all have very weak stories and most of the characters were too simple and tedious. But this time "Shadow" is not a weak story, it looks like a simple story but in fact is a complicated one which have several storylines and everybody in this movie have multiple character sides, every characters has strong personalities and strong thoughts. Although there are still some symbolic things which are kinda weird but I have to say this is one of his best in recent two decades.