Playing with Shadows

In a final attempt to turn his hobby into a job, 27-year-old Li Zi, a passionate shadow puppeteer, enrolls in a kind of Chinese X Factor. His mother would rather have him apply for a more lucrative, regular job, because “Girls want to marry a man with a house and a car.” But the optimistic Li Zi is doing all he can to protect the vanishing ancient folk art, despite opposition from authoritarian Chinese society, his family and even his friends. In these days of economic boom in present-day China, it is no easy matter to follow dreams that go off the beaten track. The film follows Li Zi during the year he loses his innocence. Together with his puppeteer friends, he travels to the TV talent pageant in Shanghai, and at the national shadow puppetry championship in his hometown of Xi’an, he asks some critical questions about the exclusion of amateur puppeteers. In an interview, Li Zi and two of his fellow puppeteers reflect on the events. Karaoke songs express his mood: in tears, he sings, “All of a sudden I’m a numb old man with no passion, no dreams.” (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)