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Shadow Magic

First Sino-Taiwanese film collaboration comes to Bay Area

A scene from Shadow Magic.

By Justin Lowe

As the world enters a new millennium filled with hi-tech innovations in digital video and high-definition TV, director Ann Hu looks back nearly 100 years to the introduction of cinema in China with her first feature, Shadow Magic.

British showman and entrepreneur Raymond Wallace (Jared Harris) arrives in Beijing in 1902, determined to introduce the new technology of moving pictures to a society still firmly rooted in tradition and wary of outside influences.

Wallace finds a supporter in photographer and technophile Liu Jinglun (Xia Yu) when he demonstrates his motion picture equipment at the photo studio of the paternal Master Ren (Liu Peiqi), where Liu is a photographer’s assistant. Enthralled by the first silent movies seen in Beijing, Liu proves an effective ally, assisting Wallace in overcoming the initial resistance he encounters in trying to screen the films publicly.

Liu, however, faces his own obstacles — the disapproving attitudes of his traditional father and boss, and the risk of personal disgrace associated with foreign influences. So he must hide his growing friendship with Wallace from his family, colleagues and his sweetheart Ling (Xing Yufei), the daughter of a famous Chinese opera singer who fears that foreign films may steal his audience. Wallace asks Liu to become his partner exhibiting movies to the Beijing public; with his assistance, European silent films are soon screening to crowds of perplexed and fascinated locals in a show that Liu dubs “Shadow Magic.” Meanwhile, the demands of two jobs, and the conflicts of different cultures, are stretching the Chinese photographer ever thinner between his old career and his new calling.

When Wallace is invited to show his movies at the birthday celebration of the Empress Dowager, while Liu and Master Ren are summoned to take the official portraits, Liu is forced to choose between his place in history and the people he loves.

Shadow Magic is based on the historical character of Liu Zhong Lun, a photographer who in 1905 directed Ding Jung Mountain, the first Chinese silent movie, launching China’s film industry, currently in its “sixth generation.” Chinese-American director, producer and co-writer Ann Hu returned to China to shoot the movie at the Beijing Film Studio, drawing together an unprecedented team of production companies from Europe, China and Taiwan — marking the first official co-production between Chinese and Taiwanese studios.

Filmed on location, Shadow Magic makes full use of the Beijing Film Studio’s vast experience, built on lavish and authentic period productions that include Farewell My Concubine and The Last Emperor, offering a visual treat of turn-of-the-century Beijing. Shadow Magic premiered last year at the Sundance Film Festival and has earned favorable comparisons to Cinema Paradiso for its passionate and touching portrayal of the magic of movies and the power of friendship.