Electric Shadows (2005)

Electric Shadows is a 2004 Chinese film directed by Xiao Jiang. The English title of the film is the literal translation for the Chinese term for movies or "dian ying" (電影).

Electric Shadows is the debut film of director Xiao Jiang, one of the few active female directors in China. Xiao and Cheng Qingsong wrote the screenplay. The film was produced by mainland China's Beijing Dadi Century and Hong Kong's Happy Pictures Culture Communication Company.

The film begins when a young woman mysteriously attacks a stranger and then asks him to care for her fish while she is being arrested. When he enters her apartment he discovers an apparent shrine to the 1930s actress Zhou Xuan and that they share a love of the cinema and more. The film's reverent attitude towards the power of film and particularly classic film has brought it comparison to, or at least reference to Italy's Cinema Paradiso.

Synopsis

Mao Xiaobing (Xia Yu), a water bottle delivery boy in Beijing, loves to watch movies. One day, however, while riding his bike, he is attacked by Ling-Ling (Qi Zhongyang), a disturbed young woman, that lands him in the hospital. Ling-Ling is promptly arrested, but refuses to say why she attacked Mao Xiaobing, asking him only to feed her fish. Upon entering her apartment, however, Mao Xiaobing finds that Ling-Ling has created a veritable shrine to the 1930s film star, Zhou Xuan. When he stumbles upon her diary and begins reading, the film flashes back to Ling-Ling's mother as a young woman in Ningxia.

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