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Electric Shadows
First Run Features


9.0

based on 7 reviews
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based on 3 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Jiang Yihong, Li Haibin, Guan Xiaotong, Zhang Yijing, Qi Zhongyang, Wang Zhengjia, Zhang Haoqi, and Xia Yuqing

Xiao Jiang, a Chinese woman making her first feature, is the director of this film about the trials and tribulations of a pair of film lovers during the Cultural Revolution.

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Cheng Qingsong Ziao Jiang
DIRECTED BY:	Xiao Jiang
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 25, 2006 Theatrical: December 16, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	China
LANGUAGE(S):	Mandarin (with English subtitles)

Original title "Meng Ying Tong Nian"; Special Jury Award, 2004 Marrakech International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Xiao's bittersweet film is superficially a swoony love letter to the cinema. But her valentine has a hidden sting, rooted in some hard truths about movie mania.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Things take several turns for the worse as the story plays out, and the film loses much of its charm. But it's a fascinating artifact, and never more so than when it features clips from Chinese and, of all things, Albanian propaganda films.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The Chinese pleaser Electric Shadows belongs to a genre they don't teach in film school: Triple S, as in sweet, sappy and sentimental.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Plays as an enthralling but implausible Asian soap opera.

The Hollywood Reporter Andrew Sun

With her debut, Xiao Jiang has created the Chinese equivalent of "Cinema Paradiso." The Beijing Film Academy graduate's confident first feature is a lovely, elegant paean to the joy and liberty that films offer as a symbol.

Variety Derek Elley

A fairly conventional heartwarmer, lifted by likable performances, good-looking production values and (for movie buffs) a story centered on an outdoor cinema in rural China.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Electric Shadows is committed to movies-as-escape swoonery, but the script's late disasters are also predicated on cinema and filmgoing, suggesting an ambivalence the rest of the film seems oblivious to.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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Electric Shadows First Run Features

Electric Shadows
First Run Features