Shadow Magic
Directed by Ann Hu.
Starring Xia Yu, Jared Harris, Lui Peiqi and Li Yucheng.
In turn-of-the-century China Master Ren (Lui Peiqi) owns a studio where the Chinese upper class comes to be photographed. His chief photographer is Lui Jinglun (Xia Yu), a talented young man with a passion for novelty and gadgets, a new gimmick arriving from the West every day. The gimmick to end all gimmicks is the moving picture, brought by itinerant showman Raymond Wallace (Harris). Lui persuades Wallace to let him help but his fascination with cinema alienates his family and employer, and proponents of traditional Chinese culture, represented in the form of legendary opera-star, Lord Tan (Li Yucheng), view it as a threat.
Shadow Magic is second in the little-publicised 2001 Silk Screen series (the others being The Vertical Ray of the Sun and Beijing Bicycle), directed by Chinese-born American-based Ann Hu. In terms of cinema history, it is notable as the first Chinese-Taiwanese co-production. Possibly this mixed origin provided too many cooks and too much cultural self-awareness. It might account for the material’s rather obvious treatment through a series of commonplace conflicts and antithesis: tradition versus innovation, loyalty and class-awareness versus ambition and love. Some of its platitudes are unsubtle and probably anachronistic: Lui’s remarks that “the whole world is changing” and “we must preserve things so that our descendents will know who we are” are especially awkward. Again, the Chinese characters (based on historical individuals) are warm and believable, but the fictional Wallace is devoid of context and difficult to understand. Is he genuinely interested in cinema or simply out to make a buck?
Shadow Magic needs more substance and probably more directorial boldness but it is, like many Chinese films, good-humoured, pleasant and stylish. The impression of the of effect of cinema on its first audiences is charming, if slightly sentimental. A film guaranteed to offend no-one.
Guy
