Sorcerer--Talks Shop
Shadow Magic offers a new vision for the future of Chinese cinema

PQ1: In our quick-paced world where cultures mix and collide each day amidst the vortex of technological change, this film about cultural and technological exchange at the beginning of the century seems more than just simply appropriate, but almost hauntingly calculated.

PQ2: "The Chinese sensitivity comes from the civilization, the wisdom, the authentic flavors in people's life, tradition, and the Western style is really a methodology and a taste developed after being exposed to many visual art style, film styles, leading theories." -- Beijing-born director Ann Hu

PQ3: "I think I was trying my best to maintain that originality and integrity and meanwhile try to appeal as much as I can. I think the greatest artists should be those who are capable of being original and have integrity, but can also create the most appeal to the widest audience." -- Ann Hu

PQ4: "A few minutes later, I found that the life was nothing but boring ... I was always out of place no matter how much I tried. At parties no matter how much you dressed yourself up you were somehow weird." -- Ann Hu, on coming to America in 1979

PQ5: "So you have to be extremely flexible and be able to interpret your contract and let it go and let it happen in the bigger frame ... Otherwise you drive yourself and others crazy ... You have to learn to have this huge patience, and a good attitude, and not to judge and appreciate what they have to offer. I think that is the way to go." -- Ann Hu, on doing business in China

STORY STARTS HERE:
Pitching itself as a new style of cooperative East-West film-making, Shadow Magic(Xi yang jing), impressed Sony Pictures to the tune of $1 million in American distribution rights after its Beijing premier.

In our quick-paced world where cultures mix and collide each day amidst the vortex of technological change, this film about cultural and technological exchange at the beginning of the century seems more than just simply appropriate, but almost hauntingly calculated.

At a time when entry into the WTO and internet access are the buzzwords from posh conference hall powerpoint presentations to casual taxi banter, Shadow Magic appears to tap into the zeitgeist with calculated precision, yet genuine human sensitivity.

The Story: Beijing 1902
A lone Englishman, Raymond Wallace (Jared Harris) in search of securing a quick fortune, lugs his Western technological wonder along the dusty streets of a 1902 Imperial Beijing.

He initially fails to entice customers, until he secures the help of Feng Tai Photo Shop's Liu Jinglun, played by Xia Yu, who won a Best Actor award at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.

Enthralled by the moving images, Liu forms a partnership with Raymond, motivated by a genuine curiosity in cinematic technology and the desire to make a buck. The apple of Liu's eye, Peking Opera star Lord Tan's daughter Ling (Xing Yufei), is off limits on account of her high social status.

Raymond and Liu entrance an audience with the mystery and magic of the moving images. When confronted by this novelty, the audience reacts by grasping for the images, fumbling through the projector's light beam, and reflexively jumping to avoid the perceived peril of an oncoming train's projected image.

Due to his indiscriminate dealings with Raymond, Liu risks his job at the
Feng Tai Photo Shop and threatens his relationship with Ling, as the magic of the cinema is stealing away her father's audience.

The tension between the Feng Tai Photo Shop and Raymond's moving pictureenterprise reaches a climax at the Empress Dowager's birthday party to which Lord Tan, the Feng Tai Photo Shop, and Raymond are all invited. When Liu chooses to assist Raymond, he is reproached for turning redcoat and expelled from Feng Tai.

Although the Empress Dowager and her entourage are agog at the moving images at first, the film in the projector ignites, creating a small explosion filling the room with smoke. Held liable for putting the Empress Dowager's life in danger, Raymond must return to England.

However, Liu continues the enterprise, gaining the long-awaited admiration of Ling. While the Chinese viewers were initially enchanted by novel images of belly dancing and houses being blown apart by dynamite, in the end they see images of themselves and their homeland, familiar yet novel.

In captions, we are told that the Feng Tai Photo Shop succeeded in making the first Chinese film, a cinematic version of the Peking Opera Dingjun Mountain.

The exotic technology, both magical and threatening at first, when finally embraced is domesticated into an instrument of self-awareness, evoking thepleasure of self-identification, with its cultural origin all but erased.

The Film-maker: Beijing-born
Shadow Magic is like a mirror: As a film it not only re-envisions the history of film-making but also as the cast enacts the process of cross-cultural interaction and exchange on the screen, it reflects director-producer Ann Hu's unique cross-cultural heritage.

Hu, a Red Guard at the age of 11 during the Cultural Revolution, arrived in the US on December 19th, 1979. She was among the first wave of Chinese students permitted to travel to the US. The automobiles, luxury of living conditions, and the scenic beauty of San Francisco left Hu with an indelible first impression.

"It was like a fantasy, but not completely, because it was reality. Then the second morning when I woke up I walked to the backyard and looked at the green sloping hills, then you see an ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge and the clouds. I couldn't believe what I did to get here."

But like many who arrive in a foreign land and culture for the first time, Hu struggled to make a new life and forge a new identity. "A few minutes later, I found that the life was nothing but boring ... I was always out of place no matter how much I tried. At parties no matter how much you dressed yourself up you were somehow weird. But eventually everything happened without you noticing it and you are an American in many, many ways."

Like many who are propelled to adjust to a new way of life, Hu became a master at negotiating cultural differences and different cultural beliefs and identities, seeking stability and solace in the mantra of harmonious cultural complementation.

"At first I was really trying to be an American. To look alike, act alike, and speak alike. I took the advantage of knowing China to make a living, to make money, to succeed. After the living needs were met ... since I am so buried in my great Chinese heritage ... I am so proud of this culture ... It is what I truly feel and I truly belong to and appreciate which is in addition to what I have newly learned. And they do not need to be in conflict with each other. They can accommodate each other."

The Trader: Wall Street Smarts
After completing a degree at NYU in business, Hu prospered in the commodities market on Wall Street. Her foray into the film industry was at first accidental. Her inter-cultural talents, quest for artistic expression, unrelenting stamina and acute business sense seems to have made her about-face - a career decision which she cautiously came to in no less than four years - hit the jackpot. "The actual quest to become a film-maker really came from wanting to say things, to make things, and film-making gives me that capacity to visually, actively, technically, music-wise, literature-wise, philosophical-wise - everything combined together - to tell my story. So it is challenging, overwhelming, and for me it is empowering. I think if you feel you can do it because you have that urge you probably have that ability to ... I realized there's an area where I can fully utilize every single talent I have and to make it happen in a big way."

Hu believes Shadow Magic is ushering a new era of cooperative film-making in China, bridging not only East and West, but also the Taiwan Straits. She raised the $5 million budget from US and German investors, in addition to the Beijing Film Studio and Taiwan's Central Motion Picture Corp.

"With all of the limitations of this film it will eventually be recorded in history as a new chapter for the Chinese film industry. Because it does offer a brand new vision, a new style and is a new development, it can become a classic, just like Yellow Earth which at first was raw but with its passion, wisdom, brand new style, and overwhelming aesthetic distinction. Years later, people realized it was an event. So will be this film eventually."

The Artist: Transcendent
Not only is the film a product of multinational sponsorship, but she views one of the major contributions of Shadow Magic to be its harmonious combination of East and West cultural sensibilities.

"I think the development is a Chinese sensitivity combined with a Western sensitivity. The Chinese sensitivity comes from the civilization, the wisdom, the authentic flavors in people's life, tradition, and the Western style is really a methodology and a taste developed after being exposed to many visual art styles, film styles, leading theories."

Hu does not shy away from admitting that her film is audience or market-oriented. "In film-making to try to make the market and make art at the same time is always such a harsh challenge to everyone and I think I was trying my best to maintain that originality and integrity and meanwhile try to appeal as much as I can. I think the greatest artists should be those who are capable of being original and have integrity, but can also create the most appeal to the widest audience."

She believes that her first film, Dream and Memory (1992), a 16-mm internationally acclaimed experimental work, was not as challenging as it did not attempt to engage such a vast audience. She is moving in a a new direction away from her first film, which she characterizes by the Chinese proverb (A single fragrant flower enjoys its own excellence). But she still classifies Shadow Magic as a cross-breed.

"In America, they would probably position it as a lyrical, comic, human story. It's like Cinema Paradiso, The Postman, Life is Beautiful, and American Radio. Are they artistic enough? Maybe not. Are they commercial enough? Maybe not."

Shadow Magic is also an intercultural experiment in the production and distribution of film. Despite having grown up in China, making Shadow Magic in China was certainly not just a holiday.

"The system is so different. Rules and contracts do not mean much and even if you have them, you will be in trouble if you try and enforce them very strictly - they will basically write you off in a second if you are too much trouble and they prefer not to deal with you at all. So you have to be extremely flexible and be able to interpret your contract and let it go and let it happen in the bigger frame ... Otherwise you drive yourself and others crazy ... You have to learn to have this huge patience, and a good attitude, and not to judge and appreciate what they have to offer. I think that is the way to go."

In trying to accommodate the different cultural methods in promoting film, the producers decided to hold two premiers. Hu initially intended to hold only one, but after going to other premiers in Beijing, she realized that the Chinese are used to only one style.

She thought it best to adjust to the Chinese system, otherwise the Chinese audience and media would be disoriented and their resources couldn't be fully utilized. The English premier catering to a Western media and audience, held at the Forbidden City, featured period-costumes, including an Empress Dowager, and the expected cocktails and buffet.

The Seer: Living with WTO
Hu and company are not unaware of the potential impact of WTO on the domestic film industry. "I think the reason we're doing this co-distribution is trying to position ourselves to be one step ahead of others. "When other films come in, then they can learn from our experience. From this sense, I think that's why I'm investing in a good time. And secondly, the film just so happened to accidentally, or maybe not so accidentally, coincide with the theme of WTO, opening the door, and embracing the world, especially the theme that progress cannot be avoided. It's inevitable a time of change. It's about change. So in that sense, it is a very timely film. But also very prestigious."

With a list of internet sponsors, such as Yahoo, Trend Micro, and 8848, apparently the financial endorsement of Shadow Magic s mantra - technology breaking down cultural barriers - just seems like good business sense. Sony Pictures, apparently, agrees.