Electric Shadows

DIR: Xiao Jiang | China | 2004 | 93 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.

SHOWTIMES:
Sat. Oct. 2 | 7:00pm | Vogue
Sat. Oct. 2 | 9:45pm | Vogue

Bring kleenex and possibly your mommy to this extremely effective first feature from one of China's brightest young female filmmakers - it's melodrama par excellence. The film starts off with a goofy delivery man who accidentally knocks over a stack of bricks with his bike one day. A woman, who he later learns is named Ling Ling, assaults him with one of the bricks. He ends up agreeing to take care of her goldfish while she is in police custody. At the woman's apartment, the delivery man begins reading the bittersweet story of her childhood. Born in an outdoor theatre and out of wedlock, Ling Ling's arrival forever shatters her mother's dreams of becoming a great movie actress and singer. But her mother, a head-strong woman who pushes her daughter to walk tall in their small-minded village, decides to build a new life for herself as a single parent. The two stand united against the world, play together on sunny hilltops and, most importantly, share a profound need for cinema. Their biggest ally in the village is Pan, a family friend who runs the outdoor film theatre. As in all good melodrama, heart-rending tragedy follows happiness. Don't say you were not warned.

Though the comment on the devastating effect that feeling unwanted can have on a child is powerful, Electric Shadows is really a story about the love of cinema. Purposefully set in a golden age for Chinese film-watching, the narrative consciously echoes the classic weepy films of a more 'pure', pre-television age of cinema. The characters in this movie - and, clearly, its director - are all in love with the experience of going to films - a love that television has eroded, if not destroyed, in most people. An extremely polished debut, Electric Shadows is one of the most purely pleasurable films i've seen at this festival.