7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Set during China's Three Kingdom's era (AD 220-280). The story of a great king and his people, who will be expelled from their homeland and will aspire to claim it. The king, violent and ambitious, of mysterious methods and motives; his general, a visionary who yearns to win the final battle but needs to prepare his plans in secret; the women of the palace, who struggle to find redemption in a world where they have no place; and a commoner called "Lord of all the world", will be the characters around who turn the inexorable forces of this story.
Starring: Chao Deng, Qianyuan Wang, Jun Hu, Li Sun, Lei WuForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 44% |
Action | 18% |
Period | 5% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: Dolby Atmos
Mandarin: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional)
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Is it time for another Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Ang Lee pretty much remade the wuxia genre over in his own image with that film, and in some ways at least martial arts films have never been the same since. Shadow may end up doing something along the same lines, though perhaps with regard to style more than substance. Co-writer and director Zhang Yimou has had his own pretty redolent history with wuxia films, having helmed such features as Hero and House of Flying Daggers, and kind of ironically given one of Shadow’s most noticeable stylistic flourishes, its near black and white cinematography, many of Zhang’s previous films have been noted for their bold use of color (Zhang even employed the then rarely used Technicolor for Ju Dou). Zhang may have experienced something of a major misfire with his attempt to appeal to Western audiences with The Great Wall, but he seems thrillingly in control of Shadow, even if the film is perhaps too rote in some of its plot dynamics and may not provide enough of the kind of (literal?) high wire acts that have been a staple of wuxia films since, well, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Shadow is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I was a bit worried when the Well Go USA masthead once again had little ripples of banding, but once this gorgeous film starts, I noticed no reoccurrences. As can hopefully be made out in the screenshots accompanying this review, this Phantom Flex4K and Red captured material (finished at a 4K DI) is in color, though just barely at times. Typically the frame is filled with an impressive array of blacks, whites and grays with just a hint of tone, often for skin. Things are toyed with, however, and there is one noticeable instance late in the film where the palette becomes at least a little warmer. Detail levels are striking throughout this presentation, even in some relatively dark scenes courtesy of the omnipresent rain or secret cavern where the real Commander Zi Yu is hiding out. The film's special effects seamlessly weave Deng Chao in both of his roles together, quite often in the same frame and just as often interacting with, including touching, each other.
Shadow features a great sounding Dolby Atmos track in the original Mandarin (a lossy English dub is included). There is fantastic immersion throughout this presentation, albeit sometimes surprisingly subtle given the hyperbolic nature of many of the events depicted in the story. Everything from Madam futzing with a metal lock on a door (in an image and sound effect moment that bookends the film) to the absolutely wild zither music to the well staged if admittedly relatively infrequent wuxia sequences offers good engagement of the surround channels, and elements (no pun intended) like the nonstop torrential downpour can help to engage the Atmos channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout.
- About the Double (1080i; 2:17)
- The Director (1080i; 3:17)
- The Unknown Side of Zhang Yimou (1080i; 3:03)
- Behind the Scenes (1080i; 2:43)
- Heroes (1080i; 4:06)
- Deng Chao (1080i; 2:49)
- Zheng Kai (1080i; 2:02)
Zhang is obviously attempting to create an almost mythic or folkloristic account of these relationships, and his incredibly striking imagery certainly helps to achieve that goal. The story has some predictable aspects, but it's quite interesting how it manages to interweave the lives of at least four major characters (five, if you include both "versions" of Commander Zi Yu), as well as a couple of other supporting court characters and citizens of Yang, giving each of them an interesting storyline. But it's the imagery that will probably initially stand out the most to many viewers, and it is ravishingly on display here. Highly recommended.
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