LOS ANGELES, May 6 (Xinhua) -- American martial arts lovers and moviegoers could enjoy the well-known Chinese director Zhang Yimou's new action epic in theaters now as "Shadow" was released in its debut weekend in the North America.
Distributed by Well Go USA Entertainment, the film "Shadow" has opened on four screens for three days starting last Friday and will expand to over 100 theaters in the next few weeks with cities of San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and Phoenix this Friday.
"Shadow," is an action-fantasy film set in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD) and tells the story of body double -- "shadow" men who substituted royals and aristocrats in times of danger, ready to sacrifice their lives so their masters could live.
The latest production of Zhang made its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival last year. The film has raked 627 million yuan (92.5 million dollars) since it was released on Sept. 30 in China.
Zhang once told Chinese media that the story was inspired by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1980 film "Kagemusha" (Shadow Warrior) and his own curiosity about the lives of body doubles in Chinese history.
The director noted that the film was different from his previous productions, which were mostly bright-colored, with the main color tone of the film this time being black and white, similar to that of a traditional Chinese-brush painting.
"Shadow" garnered favorable reviews from American critics, enjoying a 95 percent certified fresh rating to date on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with 40 reviews counted.
The film was selected by The New York Times as last week Critic's Pick.
"After the limp 2017 film 'The Great Wall,' the director Zhang Yimou was clearly looking to enact a return-to-form. With 'Shadow,' Zhang has done more than that: He's created a martial-arts movie landmark, as strong in its performances as it is spectacularly novel in its violence," wrote film critic Glenn Kenny on The New York Times website.
