Shadow

This is a Wuxia film in the context of a historical film with fights and a war. Not a Bruce Lee style film.The cinematography is mainly in shades of gray, splendidly beautiful, with a few color touches, especially of lanterns burning. Also, subtly green in a bamboo forest, pale (unsaturated) skin tones, etc., part of the film’s style. The story has a touch of Hitchcock flavor, with multiple threads woven together. Not easy to follow, one must let it play out. One of a kind, in the good sense.The audio, mainly of historical instruments including flute and traditional Chinese zither, is hauntingly beautiful in excellent sound quality to my ears. Although the story is not straightforward, this is truly an outstanding film IMO. I watched the 4K disc, truly technically outstanding in 4K UHD on my beloved OPPO 4K UHD BD player, where subtle gray tones in dark scenes are revealed, and lantern lights reveal a wonderful bright yellow contrast in an otherwise darkish evening scene.

I watched the trailer and figured I would be in for a new and awesome martial arts movie. Trailer showed a lot of action and beautiful cinema. Well....below are the pros and cons.PROS+Looks BeautifulCONS-only 2 fight scenes-boring storyline-2 hours of mainly talkingLong story short. If your into talking/drama films this is for you. If your into martial arts fighting action, skip it.

First of all, from a visual perspective, this was an incredibly beautiful film! It is, perhaps, the most strikingly poetic and uniquely artistic movie I have ever seen. Those who gave this movie poor reviews were simply expecting something else (perhaps along the lines of 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'). The movie is not that. Neither is it a Bruce Lee-style action flick (although the fight scenes are awesome). What this film really is is a beautiful exploration of Chinese Taoist philosophy embedded within the context of a dramatic story. Throughout the entire movie (in fact, even in its monochromatic, 'black and white' camera work), the movie is a meditation on the Tai Chi ('Grand Ultimate', or what is more commonly known in the West as, 'Yin-Yang', which is depicted as a black swirl intertwined with a white swirl, while both are contained within a circle). To those who are familiar with Taoist concepts as laid out in Chinese classics like the 'Tao te Ching' by Lao Tzu, or Sun Tzu's, 'Art of War', the symbolism is far from subtle: The 'feminine' vs. the 'masculine', 'compromise' vs. 'unyielding strength', 'shadow' vs. 'object', 'high' vs. 'low', etc. To those who know nothing of Taoism, or this philosophy's vital place in Chinese culture and history, that symbolism will be lost and go unappreciated. But, to those with eyes to see who have an appreciation for the ancient wisdom found within Taoism, the movie is both moving and thought-provoking. It is definitely a movie to be watched several times.

As a huge Zang Yimou fan , I regrettably must say that "Shadow" is a terrible let down from his other epic films . "Shadow" , I believe , is one of Yimou's worst . The film is artfully done , yet fails to deliver as with "Hero", "House of Flying Daggers", and "Curse of the Golden Flowers". Regrettably and sadly , I was disappointed with this film and do not recommend .

The teasers looked really impressive. They are actually in the story but that is not enough to save this movie. The cinematography is good but not as fantastic as past movies by this team. The story is about a shadow actor who proves he is as good as the real warrior he replaced. Every single other person in the movie is reprehensible. There are no good guys. So expect double-cross and betrayal at every turn. The umbrella swords turn out to be as useless as they appear. That fine Eastern distinction of honor and sacrifice just do not appear. You wind up depressed at the end of the movie.

I saw the film in the theater and knew I wanted to add it to my collection in 4K. My issue is that the UHD disc does not come with a digital copy of the film. This is standard practice for pretty much every UHD disc I buy so I have to lower the score for that. If you want to stream this film and also own a physical copy then you'll have to buy it twice or subscribe to their $2.99 a month streaming service that is advertised in the packaging for the film.

More mystery film than martial arts, there is dark and dank interplay between a cloistered general, a king, and the general's body double as they attempt to re-take an ancient contested city. Beautiful choreography and cinematography. There is a lot more court and external intrigue to this story than action as in some of the director's prior work which results in the polarizing reviews. I allowed the story the flow over me without expectation of battles every act and was rewarded with an impressive viewing. Picture quality is excellent on the blu ray. Recommended. (j4.)

Great film from the best Chinese director

Great item

Fantastic film. Great story and visualizations in the film.

The director (Zhang Yimou) of 'Raise the Red Lantern", "Hero", "Red Sorghum", "House of Flying Daggers", "To Live", "Shanghai Triad", "Not One Less", "Ju-Duo", and many more classics, has made one of his best films ever. I was astounded by the style, and the substance, but the cinematography is just impeccable and was grossly overlooked by the Academy Awards (typical). At any rate, Yimou is back better than ever. Perfecto

Shadow - the little I saw of it - is so far out of my movie tastes that I am donating it along with other things to a charity shop. Over about 10 years of my ordering movies from Amazon I have had excellent success and I am sure I will continue to do so, with a little more care on my part.