Zhang Yimou's SHADOW

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"[Zhang Yimou's] Shadow doesn't rush to battle, unlike such earlier Zhang martial-arts spectaculars as Hero and House of Flying Daggers. The movie spends about an hour sketching the backstory and observing the machinations that will lead to war....
Zhang, known for the feminism of his earlier films, doesn't give the women central roles, but he does offer some playful tweaks of masculinity. The tai-chi symbol expresses the unity of supposed opposites, including male and female. Shadow doesn't achieve that, but it does harmonize contrary impulses much more deftly than The Great Wall balanced Beijing and Hollywood.

Read the complete NPR review here.