Shadow

WORK – No, but say, is it good or not?

The epic of the Three Kingdoms with the ambitious history of an unpredictable king and his army leader who has a secret weapon: a kind able to fool the enemy and the king himself. To win the ultimate battle, he must execute his plans in secret and enter into war against the king's advice.

This fictitious adaptation of a « Three Kingdoms » is a melancholic wu xia pian as intimate (court intrigues and political exchanges) queépic (the fights are breathtaking) to the sumptuous staging, which features very thick troubled characters and unfolds a shady aesthetic (inspired by Xieyi painting) of crazy elegance. Relying on the balance between the yin and the yang (photography in false black and white, opposition between the two Kingdoms, success and failure, false appearances, life and death), this theatrical fresco in costumes (the Shakespearean tragedy is never far away) is a return through the big door for Zhang Yimou.

IMAGE – Everyone's beautiful, are you sure?

A delight of every moment that refers to Chinese calligraphy.

At the border of the monochrome, the white and black dominant graphic palette (Yin and Yang) has its impact multiplied in UHD HDR10. The few bursts of colours such as flesh tones, blood red and earthy atmosphere (almost sepia here) of the attack on the city of Jingzhou are more nuanced, the gray scale is otherwise more precise, the contrasts are much sharper (pure whites and deeper blacks) and the light sources are more realistic (reflection on water puddles). Cleanly improved also, details and depth of field fully benefit from the increased resolution of the support.

Cleanly amazing, the images delivered by this 4K Ultra HD are just hypnotic.

SON – He who has ears to hear, hear!

Subtil and warrior, this Dolby Atmos blend with feverish dynamics benefits from fantastic spatialization. The palace atmospheres, the environmental sounds, the martial effects and the ferocious score to the cithar no longer engage all the speakers (the surrounding canals have no respite).

The aerial scene radiates almost permanently (torrential rain, wind blowing, echoes in the cave, umbrella technique, etc.), the basses are particularly powerful and the dialogues appear distinctly.

CONCLUSION – Every good thing has an end...

Incredibly exposed on Ultra HD Blu-ray support, the exceptional A/V presentation of this ambitious work is sheltered from the rain... So there's no need to take out the umbrellas!