In a remote village of China, the only successor of Tai-cheng Shadow Puppetry, 72-year-old Ma Qianli, can move figures, play musical instrument and sing lyrics at the same time by himself. Nowadays, the remaining admirers of the once popular folk art are cattle in his shed and a widow next door. One day, head of the village brings a college professor and a French lady, telling him that they will apply for China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage for his shadow play. The French lady Sophie records Ma Qianli’s art with her video camera. Her enthusiasm about shadow puppetry changes his quiet life. He starts to promote the endangered art in the city. Applause and pursuit of immortality expand his ego. He no longer sees himself as a villager. He is an artist now. Just when he is about to reach the peak of his life? Once he finds the application fails, he is stunned and begins to hear a voice singing around him happily…
Through the use of lens, SHADOW demonstrates the integrated shadow charm of paper-cut, window grilles, door painting, arts and crafts, sculpture, traditional performances (such as local opera, comic, ventriloquist, etc.). Many classic arias from the traditional shadow play Shigandang runs through the film, so that the audience truly understands the unique charm of this traditional culture. It also demonstrates a lot of exquisite shadow and craftsmanship. Shadow craftsmanship is extremely complex, and needs to go through many processes including the choice of materials, sculpture, painting, stitching, painting, etc.
Li Jun as Ma Qianli
Bao Beier as Gen Zi
Wang Yajun as Zheng Cuilan
Chu Jian as Gao Xishan
Production direction by Xu Tongjun
Screenplay by Wei Zhang,Ze Wenjiang, Lian Haiping, Liu Na
Photography by Shao Dan
Editing by Qian Lingling
Music by Lao Zai
By making SHADOW, I wish to raise people’s awareness of traditional culture protection; Also, I would like to explore the topic of human nature.
Shadow play once dominated the mainstream culture stage in China in the last centuries. However, with the change of the times, as the majority of traditional Chinese culture faced with the same dilemma, it is abandoned and marginalized nowadays! People are anxious to rescue this dying folk art: the government tries to protect it as the national intangible cultural heritage, but it is almost too late. The leading role in the movie,an old shadow artist Ma Qianli, exhausts himself to continue performing the vanishing folk art. A French woman who loves shadow, the village head who loves money as well as a college professor all tried their best. However, they could not save shadow from this plight. By presenting the declining Chinese traditional culture and profiling those who wish to protect it, this film may arouse audiences’ reflection on this matter.
During the process of getting shadow listed as the world heritage, simple-minded shadow artist Ma Qianli is pushed to the city's arena from the calm rural life. The greed and selfishness of human nature as well as conceit after the success make Ma lose himself. There are many plots in the film to make Ma a legendary figure, such as foreign friends’ favor, the lure of money and the vanity of fame. In fact, Ma is a shadow of everyone. Facing the temptation of fame and wealth, can you really stand at the height of the sky and act as a god? How can we resist the temptation and objectively perceive ourselves? This is perhaps a story that a rural old artist is fooled in the temptation of money and fame, from which each of us may see our shadow.
Ma is representative of traditional Chinese culture, and has the spirit as the figure in ‘Faust’ and ‘The Old Man and the Sea’. Ma is simple-minded in the early stage. After being lionized enthusiastically, he lost himself and even felt like a god. After the dream is torn, the cruel reality dragged him to the prototype of self, which is the most real side of human nature. After being allured by fame and wealth and losing rationally thinking, Ma did not give up shadow play and eventually rediscover himself by dint of an indomitable spirit. At the end of the film, Ma was performing the shadow play alone in front of cattle, but he was happy. Although the ending is somewhat bitter and sad, Ma eventually conquered self, which reminds me of Hemingway's famous line‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated!’
This is how I gave Ma such a connotation: When the application for getting listed as world heritage failed and everyone else left, Ma performed shadow play alone but his spirit can never be defeated.