Water bottle delivery boy Mao Xiaobing loves to watch movies, spending his meager salary for the entire weekend in the movie theatres. However, one day, he is attacked by Ling-Ling, a disturbed young woman, who asks him to care for her fish, which leads him to discover their shared history and love of cinema.
The take
Electric Shadows is often deemed something like a Chinese Cinema Paradiso. It has the friendship with an older film projectionist, the small town gathering around outdoor screenings of foreign film, a childhood friendship between a boy and girl that meet again unexpectedly, and of course, it wears its heart for the movies right on its sleeve. It doesn’t quite compare to the Italian classic, and there are some moments when the film slightly drags, but Electric Shadows does capture the feeling of awe that you get when you watch your first movie, whether that be when you’re a kid taking your first steps in the world, or when you’re an adult hoping for something more despite the life allowed to you.
What stands out
This girl can’t have anything good!
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