Shadow Magic is a 2000 film directed and co-written by Ann Hu. The film was a US-China co-production starring Xia Yu, Jared Harris and Xing Yufei. The movie was Ann Hu's directorial debut. The film is set in Beijing, 1902, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. A young portrait photographer, Liu Jinglun , chances on a newly-arrived Englishman, Raymond Wallace in the capital. Liu, a self-learner of rudimentary English, is keen on new technology and gadgets, while Raymond has brought along the latest motion picture camera and projector with some silent film shorts from the West. Liu is... fascinated by the "shadow magic" and offers to help Raymond bring in audiences for his theatre. Hence Liu and Raymond become partners. However, while the innovation thrills many, the more conservative Chinese in the capital frown upon the creation as a Western "pollutant". Liu falls in love with Ling , the daughter of a well-respected Beijing Opera star, Lord Tan Xinpei . However, as he is poor and only an apprentice at the photography shop, Liu has no chance of marrying Ling.
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| Release date: | 2000 |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 115 Minutes |
| Producer: | Han Sanping |
| Genre: | Comedy |