| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 22, 2002

Why not trust the subject matter instead of shaping it all to fit a formula?

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 18, 2001

Makes us appreciate what today's audiences take for granted: the miracle of the cinema.

Full Review | May 17, 2001

Gives us a glimpse of what it must have been like to be mesmerized and seduced by images that still convey magic and mystery.

Full Review | May 17, 2001

A sweet evocation of a world on the verge of change.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2001

Shadow Magic isn't interested in psychology or character study. It's a series of tableaux and on that level succeeds admirably.

Full Review | May 4, 2001

It's a film about film, and Hu's love of the medium's storytelling power shines through every frame.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 20, 2001

Sumptuous, warm, continually amazing, it's a completely enjoyable couple of hours at the flickers.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 20, 2001

Transports us to a world that still had a capacity for awe, and that's the core of its charm.

Full Review | Apr 20, 2001

The film is at its best as a document of a changing culture and also as a loving essay on the power of cinema.

Full Review | Apr 20, 2001

A pleasant but conventional.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 13, 2001

Jared Harris and Xia Yu give appealingly energetic performances.

| Apr 6, 2001

Gentle and easy to take.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 6, 2001

The film is often charming and sweet.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2001

Evokes the dawn of cinema in China with much charm, humor and subtlety.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 6, 2001

A sweet, sumptuous sonnet to film and its universal lure.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2001

It has a real sense of the wonder.

Full Review | Apr 5, 2001

Properly picturesque but lacks subtlety and substance in blending Chinese and Western history, ideas, and cinematic conventions.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2001