At 68-years-old, Zhang Yimou has no plans to slowing down, especially with the outing of his latest movie "Shadow." The legendary director is back, and he will once again conquer the big screen with his distinct style of directing and storytelling.
Zhang Yimou is one of China's most creative and acclaimed movie directors. He tries his best to make his films balance from what the Chinese censors need, and the moviegoers want.
Zhang Yimou rose to fame with his award-winning directorial debut "Red Sorghum" and "Raise the Red Lantern." It also includes the international blockbusters "Hero" and "House of the Flying Daggers."
As Zhang Yimou does his best to cater what everyone wants to see, he is now known as a "prolific, versatile, and significant" director of the Fifth Generation, per GBTimes. His movies contain simple plots with limited dialogues but with extravagant visual artistry.
With his new film "Shadow," Zhang Yimou is back to put everyone in awe with this historical epic that now has 12 Golden Horse nominations and four awards. The producer even received Golden Twice for "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992) and "Not One Less" (1999) at the Venice Film Festival in September 2018. He even got "Glory to the Filmmaker" recognition for his "extraordinary body of work."
Aside from nominations and awards, "Shadow" also earned a whopping US$90 million at the Chinese box office. It also got six nominations at the Asian Films Awards, which winners will be announced in March.
According to the South China Morning Post, "Shadow" story is set during the China Three Kingdoms period (220-280AD). It is like a Shakespearean story about deception and betrayal. Most of its tale revolves around Pei Kingdom's injured Commander Yu (Deng Chao). He hides in the shadows, and let a low-born, who exactly looks like him, takes his place without the knowledge of everyone, including the young king (Zheng Kai).
Zhang Yimou describes "Shadow" story as a "power struggle between men," which quite surprise his followers. The former cinematographer is also known for featuring female leads.
In "Shadow," women characters only have secondary roles. "I personally think in this film the two female characters are also very important," Zhang Yimou said, pertaining to Sun Li, Commander Yu's wife, and Guan Xiaotong, the king's sister. "All the men are struggling for power and to survive, but she [Xiaotong] is struggling for her own respect." The film will hit the Hong Kong theaters on January 17.
