Shadow Magic

The film is set in Beijing, 1902, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. A young portrait photographer, Liu Jinglun (Xia Yu), chances on a newly arrived Englishman, Raymond Wallace (Jared Harris) in the capital. Liu, a self-learner of rudimentary English, is keen on new technology and gadgets, while Raymond has brought along the latest motion picture movie camera and movie projector with some silent film shorts from the West. Liu is fascinated by the "shadow magic" and offers to help Raymond bring in audiences for his theatre. Hence Liu and Raymond become partners. However, while the innovation thrills many, the more conservative Chinese in the capital frown upon the creation as a Western "pollutant".