Code of Umbrellas, but double the edge (literally)

Jan 08, 2020 22:01

So, quite some time ago, I saw the trailer for the new Chinese martial arts extravaganza by the director of Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Shadow.

image Click to view



Even though I'm always somewhat apprehensive because eVERYONE YOU CARE ABOUT WILL DIE endings, the whole thing looked just to utterly bonkers to dismiss instantly. However, considering these movies often don't get a cinema release here outside some festival circuits, I didn't even keep up with news on it. Then, the other day, when I was looking up potential screenings for Knives Out, I conincidentally saw that this movie would get a screening in OV with German subtitles on the 7th, and thought, well, why not!

  • Three kingdoms fought over one city, and in the end, two managed to form an alliance and win. However, which of the two would get to keep the city was decided by a duel, and the kingdom of Pei lost. Now, years later, their military commander once more challenges the enemy Can clan to a duel, the victor getting to claim the city. However, the commander isn't quite who he says he is - out of fear of a potential assassination, his father picked up a random boy from the streets who bore a striking ressemblance, his Shadow. While restrained to his house and recuperating from a previous injury, the commander sends out his loyal Shadow to instigate political intrigue and fight his battles, but he's far from the only one with an agenda.
Shadow is a radical departure from the director's previous most well-known movies, which were just dripping with wonderful colours, each fight and duel bringing in new gorgeous visuals. This movie, instead, is almost monochrome - everyone is wearing black and white robes, and the country is shrouded in endless seeming rain and mist. Only the muted skincolour in the dim light and the bright red of the blood show you that this is not a black and white movie, actually. The soft, washed-out greyscale really makes you feel as if you're watching a black ink painting come to life before your eyes, all even made hazier by the omnipresent CGI rain, fine and veil-like. (Occasionally, the actors are actually somewhat wet, but for the most part, it is more symbolic.) The constant soft swoshing of the rain gives the first arc a strange sense of calm, and the fights in the second half a traceability to every swordstroke.

The other element that had me go ::eye emoji:: was of course.... umbrella fights. Now, I'm a simple woman with simple tastes (in Taiwanese budaixi).

image Click to view



These come in two shapes in this movie: number one, in the training scenes, with actual umbrellas, and it is glorious. Number two, in the actual war, with these spiky metal umbrellas as seen in the trailer, that somehow are less cool than no. one. How that's even possible, I don't know - maybe it's just that they do seem very alien in this otherwise rather subdued political thriller/umbrella fights/zither duo setting. Overall, I did find myself ironically growing less invested the more the pace picked up. Partially this was due to the strange editing choices - the duel between the generals obviously being shorter than the attack on the city parallel to it does make it difficult to cut back and forth between the two (we call this the Dunkirk conundrum). However, considering the duel happens in three distinct rounds, just cutting to it at random intervals undercut its weight, especially with how much time we spent setting it up and training for it.

That, and my lack of enthusiasm for the metal umbrellas had me actually wish we could get back to more politics soon, which thankfully, eventually, we did. By the time the ending came around, I had almost forgotten that the movie had a prolapse cold-open, and being suddenly reminded that oh, we've seen this shot before, definitely helped drive home the impact of the moral catch-22 this character finds themselves in. Some people at the screening were audibly mad at the resolution, but honestly, I was surprised that potentially, it wasn't even as bleak an ending as I had expected! Small victories!

Anyhow, this is a movie you watch for the optics, not the plot, really, and I would reccommend it solely for the first half of gorgeous ink paintings in motion alone. But the best umbrella fight still goes to SanFan, I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. Three betrayals in a trenchcoat out of five.

Bonus observation #1: Watching something in Chinese was so strange to me - I caught myself subconsciously straining to understand bits and pieces, even as I was fully aware that, well, I wouldn't be able to. Brain, why.

Bonus observation #2: In a way, going out to watch this movie was a bit of a #throwbackthursday for me - back in 2013, I finally mustered up the courage/drive to go to the movies all by myself to see The Grandmaster, because the German trailer looked so incredibly pretty. Up to this point, I think I had always gone to movies with friends or family, often not seeing things I lowkey wanted to, or ending up watching stuff I wasn't that into, or if I had gone alone, only to the big events where you wouldn't stand out. Going to a late screening of an artsy movie was an actual challenge for me, and I was hyper aware the entire time I was the only single girl there, the other handful people present were couples or older single guys. Ah yes, social anxiety, you lil' bitch. Looking back, I can go aww, at least I got so much better at going out to do things I want to do! Snail's pace progress!! (  °∀° )ง

#throwbackthursday, review

Previous post Next post
Up