This well-crafted and subtle film follows the development of a traveling cinema troupe (from Xiuwen Commune) consisting of two men and one woman to explore the impact of the Post-Mao market reform on rural culture. Set in the heartland of Sichuan, the film opens with a memorable scene of an old peasant woman singing to the camera the famous theme song of
Street Angel (1936). Her obvious enthusiasm evokes a sense of nostalgia that becomes the underlying tone of the film.
The film keeps narration to a minimum, and thereby enhances the "realism" of the rural life it has "recorded." As the narrative voice tells us, traveling cinema began around 1949 when the Communist government recognized the importance of film as a tool of propaganda and sent troupes to the countryside where there were no established theaters. So itinerant film projectionists were propaganda officials, prestigious and privileged. But things have rapidly changed after the onset of the economic reform. Carefully following the daily routines of the traveling troupe, which is responsible for twenty villages, with a nice mix of long and medium shots, the film shows us the various aspects of daily life in the countryside and the difficult lives of itinerant film projectionists. We watch them carrying loads of projection equipment and films and slides on their shoulders as they climb hills and cross bridges and walk long hours on muddy roads just to get to their job sites. But the greatest threat to the troupe is the privatization of the economy and the increasing diversity of forms of mass entertainment since the 1980s. Now they no longer descend to the village as the agent of the state ideology. Rather, under the pressure of what one projectionist calls the "marketization of cinema," they become semi-private entrepreneurs at the mercy of the peasants who pay for the screening. They need to show kung-fu films, along with educational materials (which the state requires), to keep the audiences happy. They are forced also to supplement their meager income by showing films at private occasions. In fact, a rich peasant hires the Xiuwen troupe to show films, which include the 1960 classic Liu San Jie (Third Sister Liu), at his nephew's wedding ceremony. Electric Shadows ends with a moving scene in which all the middle-aged guests at the film show are singing with both enthusiasm and nostalgia, just as the old woman does at the film's opening scene, the famous theme song of Liu San Jie while watching it on the screen.
The last scene of Electric Shadows brings out important questions regarding Chinese society and culture in the 1980s and 1990s: to what extent is nostalgia a significant ethos in post-Mao/Deng China? How would popular culture develop in the contemporary Chinese village? This fine film would surely provoke fruitful discussions and reflections in any twentieth-century China course.
