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2018's Shadow is a fantasy political thriller
Set in a fictional period in China
It tells the story of a body double
A SHADOW whose entire existence
Is to cover for the commander-in-chief
"Sometimes I wonder..."
"If my wife..."
"Can tell us apart"
But we aren't here to talk about the story
If you aren't mesmerized by the stunning visuals yet
You have no soul
Director Zhang Yimou is well known
For making visual masterpieces
In this area
He is one of the greatest living directors
Right up there with the likes of Wes Anderson
But for Shadow
He went full Tim Burton
Adopting a colorless
Chinese ink wash visual
And it is unlike anything I've seen before
Adapting this visual is not easy
Unlike western scenery paintings
Which, at least have a style
That focuses on naturalistic lights and compositions
Ink wash paintings are paintings of ideas
Subject matters are often limited
Details are sparse
The more three dimensional a film is
The harder it is to feel like ink wash
Even the best 3D animations in China
Can only allude to some visual elements
So, how on earth does a live-action movie
Manage to capture the spirit so well?
Today, we'll be diving into the visual of Shadow
And see how Zhang Yimou and his team
Achieved the unique ink painting look
And through this
Let's learn to appreciate this director
Sit tight
It's gonna be a feast
For your eyes
The visual of Shadow is generally agreed to be
Absolutely amazing
But shouldn't the credit goes to the cinematographer?
Well...
Not exclusively
Black and white movies are never truly black and white
But greyscale
Even a film noir movie feels pretty grey looking
When put next to Shadow
Which ironically
Is actually in color
This goes to show that
To achieve that ink wash look
You need a lot more than just set that saturation to 0
In order to capture the feel
The film has to achieve 3 things
First, it's the contrast
Ink wash painting is, of course
Mainly in black and white
With few shades of grey in between
To achieve this
The production designer carefully crafts every prop
From the armor to the wooden furniture
In black or white
As a result, nothing feels grey
Keyword being "FEEL"
When layers of mist meet the dark bamboo
It technically displays as shades of grey
But our brains don't perceive it that way
We know fog is white
Just like we know ink is black
In our mind
We feel the contrast
However, it's not enough for things to be in black and white
See, characters don't always wear solid black or pure white
Often, their costumes have these
Soft and flowing patterns on them
Recreating that signature soft edges
In ink wash paintings
Fog
Rain
Layers upon layers of translucent fabric
All further accentuate this soft visual
Even the lighting is surprisingly soft
Blur out a scene from a film noir
The highlights still pop
Blur out this film
And you get a very consistent shade of black
In other words
It's not just black and white
It has to have softness
That is the second point
And then there's the final point
Which, ironically
Is the use of color
Black and white ink paintings
Are not technically black and white
Traditional Chinese ink paintings are made on rice paper
Or other forms of fabric, like silk
In either case
The canvas gains a shade of yellow over time
That's usually how people experience these paintings
With an aged, flesh tone backgrounds
If you adjust the painting so the paper is pure white
Suddenly, something feels off
Throughout the film
Human flesh is the only color that consistently pops
Even blood is desaturated
And as much as the black and white accentuate colors
Colors also anchors black and white
Desaturate the image
And the visual feels grey again
The use of color
Paradoxically, makes the film
Feel even more like black and white ink wash paintings
To achieve this look
An enormous amount of details are considered
It requires careful communications and collaborations
Between multiple departments
While the cinematography certainly is something to behold
There is also the production design
And the color grading
This level of cohesiveness requires vision
That's why Zhang Yimou is such a great director
You know what I've been binging lately?
Skillshare classes
No joke
In preperation for this video
I have to learn the techniques of painting
It's like watching Bob Ross
Even if I don't intent on painting
It's still entertaining
And good to learn more
In case you don't know
Skillshare is an online learning community
Where millions come together to explore their creativity
A quick search on Skillshare
And you can find numerous classes on painting alone
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Acrylic
Even digital
Currently I'm watching Botanical Illustration
By Sara Boccaccini Meadows
With professional presentation
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It's actually pretty entertaining
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And have fun doing it
Now, in Chinese painting
There is this technique called
"Liu Bai"
Leaving it empty
In this painting of a fisherman
The vast majority of the frame is empty
Yet you can feel the stillness of the wind and water
The vastness of the lake
And the only movement
Is the gentle bobbing of the boat
Hinted at
By the faint brushstrokes of waves
This is what I mean
When I said Chinese paintings are paintings of ideas
Or in Chinese
Yi Jing
It is about not painting what is there
And painting what is NOT there
This technique is used
In shots like this one
Where instead of showing the scale of the cave
The film leaves everything shrouded in darkness
Which not only implies the depth
But adds to the secrecy of the scene
Despite endless rain
The sky is always paperwhite
The ominous cloudy weather is felt
Without being shown
The wind is ever-present
Even in indoor scenes
People's hair dancing gently in the breeze
All these unshown or invisible elements
Build a mood in a similar fashion as ink wash painting
Serene, and in parts
Sinister
But beyond the mood-building
The technique of leaving details out
Is also used for purely aesthetic purposes
Like the texture on wooden furniture
Including the wooden instruments
Compare this to this shot in Hero
See how the same instrument has color and gradient
The curved edges give off large reflective highlights
It feels three dimensional
In Shadow
The highlights are dull and thin
And the entire thing is all just dark grey
As if it's painted in one stroke
The film puts much more emphasis on shapes
Rather than detail textures
Aligning with the aesthetic of ink paintings
It doesn't just feel like a painting
It works like a painting
So, why Chinese ink wash paintings?
In his past works
Zhang's use of color is...
Hit or miss
In The Road Home
The flashback is in color
And the present day is in black and white
It deliberately goes against tradition
Making the flashbacks feel extra nostalgic
And the present even grimmer
His use of color in Hero
And Golden Flower, however
Is pretty much arbitrary
Now, that's not to say arbitrary use of style is bad
I can't really tell you why The Grand Budapest Hotel
Looks like a pastel painting
Other than it looks good
But it does not mean it's a bad film
But for Shadow
The black and white aesthetic
Ties into the film's story surprisingly well
The film is about the power struggle between a commander
And his body double
Who's called a "shadow"
The choice for black and white visual is self-explanatory
But throughout the film
The body double is the one out in the open
And the commander
Is the one hiding in the shadows
Like their costumes
Neither of them is consistently black or white
Sometimes
The character looks like he's painted on paper
Other times
He looks like he's drawn with white ink
The repeated use of the tai chi symbol showsthat
There is at least some intentionality to it
As the symbol shows
There is white in black
And there's Yin in Yang
Still, the commander is the one giving orders
He is the one whose will matters in this story
It is like in paintings
What isn't painted
What remains hidden
Is often the spirit of the image
Is it a solid connection?
Debatable
But it is there
The style certainly has more meaning in here
Than it is in Hero and Golden Flower
And arguably more nuanced than The Road Home
And Red Lantern
It goes to show that
For a director who's often accused of style over substance
He is stepping up his game
But at the end of the day
It just FEELS right
I know it's not very analytical
But there's just something that works
That is beyond words
I just can't imagine any other visual style
That suits this film better
Isn't that enough of a justification?
The greatest thing about the visual of Shadow
Is that it actually doesn't LOOK
That much like a Chinese painting
But it FEELS like one
Zhang Yimou captured the spirit of the art
Zhang's understanding of Chinese art is very contemporary
Many elements that feel Chinese in his films
Are either recent inventions
Or taken from other cultures
The one-shot kill move in Hero
Is much more Japanese than it is Chinese
It works in the strange tone of Tsui Hark Wuxia films
But it feels unintentionally funny
In a political drama
Yeah, not everything in Shadow is a slam dunk
Over the years
Zhang Yimou garnered a lot of criticism
For watering down Chinese culture
I'll admit, I was one of those critics
Traditional Chinese culture suffered greatly
In the past hundred years
I was afraid the thing I love would change
Get turned into a knock off of Japanese culture
But Zhang continues to do it
And do it with such commitment and confidence
He owns it
His sense of aesthetic focus more on the feel
Rather than the form
Making it very accessible
With hindsight, I realized
Cultures change and morph
While many Chinese artists still get hung up on the glory days
Cultural workers like Zhang Yimou
Is pushing the art form forward
There may be missteps here and there
But I would gladly take that growing pain
If it means we are moving forward
If this is what people remember Chinese art to be
Sign me up
Also, Zhang Yimou would make a killer Mortal Kombat movie