What is "Shadow" about? Why do so many people say they can’t understand it?

"Shadow" is a martial arts action film directed by Zhang Yimou released in September 2018. The long-lasting ink painting style attracted a large number of viewers, but the twists and turns of the plot left people guessing and chewing it up. The following analyzes the plot and briefly introduces the reasons why the audience has difficulty understanding the plot.

The film begins with Xiao Ai, the governor of Pei State, running in panic and looking out of the palace through the crack in the door. This section is a flashback and will be ignored for the time being.

After that, the story officially unfolded. King Pei and his ministers, who lived a luxurious life and had no ambition to make progress, were enjoying the singing and dancing. Yu, the governor of the capital, walked into the court with wind and rain in his arms, vowing to take back Jingzhou. To this end, he had agreed on a decisive battle with the enemy general Yang Cang

< p>The king of Pei was shocked and thought that this move destroyed the peace between the two countries. He reprimanded Ziyu and asked Ziyu and Xiaoai to make things difficult for them. Zi Yu regained his ambition and resigned with Xiao Ai.

After that, the camera turned to show the haggard and the young and strong, with similar looks, having sex in a secret room. Only then did the audience truly understand the story: the real Ziyu was injured by Yang Cang, and his appearance Decline, broken body. In order to achieve his goal of taking back Jingzhou, he used the substitute Jingzhou that his uncle found for him.

Ziyu was planning and calculating in the darkroom to let Jingzhou challenge Yang Cang again. But when Jingzhou confides in Xiao Ai later, the audience can understand that Jingzhou doesn't like this kind of life. He just wants to return to Jingzhou to find his mother. Ziyu proposed that they had found Jingzhou's mother, and as long as Jingzhou defeated Yang Cang, he could start a new life.

Jingzhou went back to court with a fake knife wound, but King Pei offered to apply medicine to the governor's wound and discovered that Jingzhou's injury was a new one. Jingzhou explained that he was hurting himself and reminded himself to regain Jingzhou. King Pei and Minister Lu Yan sang and demoted the governor to a commoner, and Jingzhou walked out in single clothes.

It can be seen here that King Pei has long been wary of the governor. King Pei succeeded in ascending to the throne with the support of Ziyu's family. Ziyu was one person inferior to ten thousand people, and he might one day be able to replace him. Whether it was having the Grand Governor and Xiao Ai play together or applying medicine to the Grand Governor, these were all small means used by King Pei to test whether the Grand Governor in front of him was the real person.

After Jingzhou admitted that his injuries were new, King Pei got the accurate answer: The governor who was able to handle himself easily in the court and had an extraordinary bearing was not his true form. At this time, King Pei had only two tasks left: one was to find the hiding place of Zi Yu's true body and kill him, and the other was to stabilize the situation on the surface and make the enemy believe that he would still maintain the alliance.

For this purpose, King Pei used two chess pieces: minister Lu Ping, and Tian Zhan, who was demoted to a commoner. Most viewers can tell that Lu Ping is an undercover agent sent by the enemy country, but few people can see Tian Ping's undercover identity, and therefore have doubts about the main plot.

Under Lu Ping's supervision, King Pei did not hesitate to marry Qingping, the eldest princess of Pei State, to Yang Cang's son as his concubine. At the same time, he demoted Tian Zhan to a commoner, allowing him to gain Ziyu's trust and gain Ziyu's trust. Hideout and next steps. King Pei's two goals were achieved. The enemy did not take Zi Yu's challenge seriously. Yang Cang even withdrew part of his troops to support his lord, leaving only 800 men to defend the city.

On the other hand, Tian Zhan, who gained trust, met the real governor in the darkroom. The governor asked him to lead the dead soldiers to break through the Yang family's defense line from Jingzhou City, and promised him the position of chief governor. Only Tian Zhan is Pei Gong's chess piece, which can explain the series of plots in which the eldest princess learns about the raid plan, the darkroom is exposed, and the easter egg in which Tian Zhan encounters Pei Gong in the bamboo forest. This is why in the ending part, Jingzhou walks out of the palace and declares that the king has been assassinated. Tian Zhan would show a panicked expression.

On the agreed date, Jingzhou took a boat with the dead men to the outside of Jingzhou Pass. Tian Zhan, the eldest princess and a hundred dead men raided into Jingzhou City from the bottom of the water. Jingzhou fought with Yang Cang to hold them back. he.

When the city was broken, Yang Ping and Qingping died, and Yang Cang was killed by Jingzhou. But the one who accepted the victory was not the one Ziyu expected, but Pei Gong who had known everything for a long time. Pei Gong met Tian Zhan immediately after the city was defeated, and the relationship between the two is self-evident.

Jingzhou escaped and returned to his old house when he was a child. His mother on the bed had already been killed. A team of assassins ambushed him, but another team rescued him, claiming to be King Pei's henchmen, and Ziyu killed his mother. Jingzhou decided to go back to take revenge on the governor.

There are doubts about the death of Jingzhou’s mother, and there are also doubts about the identity of the assassin who assassinated Jingzhou. Some viewers thought it was King Pei who made a show to lure Jingzhou to kill Ziyu, but after analysis, I also think that the truth is King Pei. As said, there are two reasons:

First, Ziyu needs to get rid of Jingzhou to prove that he is the real governor, because only Tian Zhan and Xiao Ai know his true identity. Xiao Ai has ambiguous feelings for Jingzhou, and Tian Zhan does not play a big role in proving his true identity. The fact that Ziyu wants to kill Jingzhou in the ending is also a detail that can prove this speculation. But Jingzhou's mother and being alive are a good thing for King Pei. After killing Ziyu, he can get a loyal and powerful general.

2. Ziyu saw Xiao Ai cheating on Jingzhou and harbored a grudge against Jingzhou. The fact that Jingzhou was able to find his mother in the old house shows that Ziyu did not deceive him at first, and Ziyu was indeed prepared to let Jingzhou realize his wish. But after the city was broken, Ziyu sent assassins to kill Jingzhou and his mother. Perhaps it was Xiao Ai's cheating that stimulated Ziyu to take revenge on Jingzhou in this way.

In the ending, Jingzhou was recaptured and Ziyu was surrounded. King Pei killed the undercover Lu Ping, revealing his sharp fangs, and at the same time let Jingzhou replace Ziyu as the real governor. . At this point, King Pei's game has been completed.

Then Ziyu pretended to be a warrior and killed King Pei, luring Jingzhou to kill King Pei so that he could get rid of him. This was Ziyu's attempt to counterattack and kill him. But Jingzhou had long been disappointed with Ziyu. He killed the two people to create the illusion that King Pei was assassinated, and completed his change in identity. This was a trap set by Jingzhou in order to preserve himself and protect Xiao Ai.

In the end, Xiao Ai ran to the door and looked out. She was obviously worried about Jingzhou's safety. But the film ends here, leaving us with no idea of ??the final outcome. We don’t know if Tian Zhan and Jingzhou had a dispute, nor do we know if King Pei is also involved.

The misunderstanding of Tian Zhan’s identity made the audience feel abrupt that King Pei was in control of the overall situation, but true and false clues and the explanations of different people made the story more complicated. Within an hour and a half in the theater, the audience has to summarize the clues and sort out the plot while appreciating the unique ink style. The lack of pauses and replays makes this task difficult, which is why most viewers "can't understand" it.

In general, the plot of "Shadow" is not incomprehensible. He uses a substitute as the protagonist to tell the story of the power struggle between the king and his powerful ministers, but it just takes some time. The real struggle between people's hearts and the court is more complicated and bloody than "Shadow".