With SHADOW, director Zhang Yimou (HERO, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) once again pushes the boundaries of wuxia action to create a film like no other, masterfully painting a canvas of inky blacks and greys punctuated with bursts of color from the blood of the defeated. In a kingdom ruled by a young and unpredictable king, the military commander has a secret weapon: a “shadow”, a look-alike who can fool both his enemies and the King himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the King does not want.

REVIEWS

“A martial-arts movie landmark, as strong in its performances as it is spectacularly novel in its violence… The convolutions of court intrigue are head-spinning enough. Once the action scenes begin, though, they bring with them a new level of exhilaration. Just when you believe the movie can’t get any crazier, it does, interrupting the gray world with shocks of dark red.” – Glenn Kenny, New York Times (Critic’s Pick)

“Every supremely controlled stylistic element of Zhang Yimou’s breathtakingly beautiful “Shadow” is an echo of another, a motif repeated, a pattern recurring in a fractionally different way each time.” –Jessica Kiang, Variety

“This is probably the most stunningly beautiful Zhang has made to date.” –Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter