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Question
We went to see Shadow this weekend, and enjoyed it. It's a bit slow to get going and confusing at first, but worth it in the end.
There's one thing I didn't understand about the ending of the movie. At the very end, the shadow finds a pouch and gives it to the commander's wife. She clutches it as she looks through the crack in the door. What is the significance of the pouch?
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The commander's wife has just witnessed the shadow murder both her husband and the king. She is also fully aware that the shadow has manipulated the bodies in a way that appears as though her husband (a masked assassin) has murdered the king, leaving the shadow in a position to take power. He hands her the pouch (the same pouch she had given him previously in kindness) as a way of reconciling with her, presumably in the hope that she will continue to play along as his wife as he begins to rule the kingdom. The shadow exits the court and speaks his lie to the crowd waiting outside.
As the wife runs up to the door, stops and peers through the hole, we now release that this is the moment where she 'faces the most difficult choice of her life' (as mentioned at the start of the movie).
Does she play along with the shadow's story?
Or does she tell the truth?
This is how I saw it as well.
Man THANK YOU for linking this to that early one-liner. I spend a good part of the movie wondering what choice she made and after about 80 minutes I forgot about that altogether.
Oh wow, I totally missed this! I just went back to reread the intro, and was interested to find that it’s intentionally misleading. The last line of the intro says “Our story begins as Madam, wife of the Great Commander of PEI, faces the most difficult choice of her life.” What the heck, the story doesn’t begin there does it? But it does—the very first shot of the film is the same moment as the last shot of the film—over the title card you hear Madam running, and then for several seconds we see her staring out the keyhole in a panic before the camera cuts to the courtroom. Very cool how this bookends the film!
Jeeeeesus I watched this movie over 2 days so I'd have never made that connection.
I miss things all the time and I am by no means a sophisticated film-goer, but I’ll try my best to get the conversation started:
The pouch in question was first given to the shadow Jing by the Commander’s wife Xiao Ai at the beginning of the film. This was right after we learned that Commander Ziyu had been secretly training Jing as his shadow, which involved the morbid detail of replicating an old (and supposedly deadly) war wound on his chest. The Commander used a vile concoction of herbs to achieve this, and King Peiliang subsequently used some unknown medicine to “help treat” this wound in court. Out of her own good will, the wife gave the shadow “real” medicine in a silk pouch to help heal this wound, which you saw him desperately do in a boat after he left court. This is my best guess of what was happening because the subtitles did not make this clear.
As you know, there is a lot of romantic tension between the shadow and the Commander’s wife, and the pouch came to represent a physical token of this forbidden love. You see the shadow look over the pouch one more time before he sets off to duel General Yang in Jingzhou. Perhaps to reinforce to the audience that the Commander’s wife is the only reason he is following through with this suicidal plan.
By the time we reach the scenario you’ve described where the shadow returns the bloodied pouch back to the Commander’s wife, a lot has happened not only in the movie but also within the shadow Jing. Jing somehow survived against all odds his encounter with General Yang. The King had tried to kill Jing. The King had also tried to have the Commander killed. The Commander literally backstabbed the King (perhaps expectedly), and Jing ended up finishing the King off, right before framing the Commander for the assassination. All the while the Commander’s wife is near-paralyzed with fear and shock at the events quickly unfolding before her eyes.
So maybe Jing gave the pouch back to her to comfort her, to remind her of the man for whom she had once shown compassion. Or maybe he returned the pouch as a way to put the past behind him and further demonstrate who he was going to become at the end of the movie.
It’s a huge mess at the end, but now Jing is able to emerge from the bloodbath an independent man with his own agency moving forward. I’m a romantic as much as the next guy, but I felt that Jing was seizing an opportunity to become something much greater than his birthright and upbringing, and the wife was peering through the door hole and seeing someone new and perhaps more different/unfamiliar than the man she once knew as represented by the silk pouch.
I would also add that Commander tried to assassinate Jing at the end. Right after instructing Shadow to finish off the king - there's a clear shot of him reaching for the blade on his back. Shadow anticipated this move and stabbed Commander first.
I’m confused why did the commander try to kill jing
I honestly question whether it was actually the Commander or the King who tried to have Jing killed (at his mother's house) he did witness Jing doing his wife so there's that....he only saw Jing as a disposable pawn either way.
IMO, the ending where she peeks through the door cracks can have different meanings, and it depends how you understood the plot.
Here are a few possibilities...
She is the only person left in the "shadows" in the end. She is looking at Jing from the inside out. There is a scare on her face as she comes to realize her new reality.
The door to the palace == secret door in the wall. But now, figuratively speaking, she is the commander looking out at Jing.
The scene doesn't mean anything. As she is about to walk out she stops, shocked, seeing Jing being stabbed by the second commander, or some other event.
The point would be to keep the viewer in the shadows by stopping there. Experience what it feels like when you don't know.
I think #2 is most accurate here with the whole plot of the movie revolving around a humiliated commander stuck in his own cage (referenced early on) plotting from his small chamber only seeing the outside through his hole in the wall.
The wife now will become a trapped person in this facade (if she continues with it) or faces trial and possibly execution for being related and involved in the murder or the King.
Typical Chinese drama-like movie where they make the plot predictable in a satisfying way. (Ex. The guard standing in the back? Nahhhhh king is defffffinitely getting stabbed ... OHHH SHIT I WAS RIGGGHT)
3… dayum!! Yes that is a total possibility.
I realize its a late reply but I just saw the movie and had to share my thoughts. Firstly the way I saw it was that it was to comfort her. The reason being when he approached her, he was a bit startled by how scared she was of him now, which gave him pause. And then he gave her the pouch to relax her and remind her that hes still the same man.
I will add that I understand why the wife was in shock as she didnt know the shit he went through to be in that position, and she was still in shock that he even came back alive. Them sleeping together was for her the last moment they could be together. Then she finds out in a passing reference that his mother has been killed. And then the next moment her real husband and her king both are dead. Though she was disloyal to her husband, the movie never should her having any hatred towards him and she still cared for him.
I think its obvious she will stay quiet when to comes to the last scene. The real story is just too unbelievable, as even if she unmasks the assassin, the real commander is too disfigured to be recognizable. Plus the commander already has friends in court (the other generals love him and were wishing for the day he could take power). I love how he accepted his new identity and finally became a "real" person. The only person I am sad for is the king. He should have told his sister at least part of his plan, which would have saved her life. And also being in a room with a shadow (whose mother was just killed), and a known traitor without any guards is just plain dumb. Also how was the asasssin (real commander) able to stand upright? Wasnt his back crooked?
The movie has plot holes but is decent 8/10.
The dcision the wife was about to chose was more about whether she is willing to love shadow after what he has become rather than whether she wants to stay loyal to her old husband. I agree there are a lot of "meh" writing desicions but logicwise the "decision" part is pretty solid imo.
At the beginning, the pouch represented kindness and the relaonship between shadow and commanders wife.
Before shadow kills the general the film tells both autorities expectations for what they want shadow to be. The ruler wanted shadow to replace the old general and the old general wanted shadow to live the life he couldn't live. But shadow decides he doesn't want to be a replacement which is the reason does what he does. But that also means he has become a new person, reborn at the battle no longer a shadow which is shown with the metaphor of him returning the pouch bloodied.
Its both a metaphor for the tenderness the pouch represented being stained and shadow growing up and becoming his own person.
The Commander lied about wanting Jing to live the life he couldn't live, he also lied about the king killing jings mother, his plan was to be king and make his war friend commander, so he set up Jing to "avenge his mother" by killing the king. He attempted to strike as soon as Jing grabbed the sword, he never planned on letting Jing go, he used him as a pawn Jing didn't choose to become a new person he became the commander, he said it to the commander about the shadow existing without the original, and when he went outside and announced himself as their commander who just killed an assassin. The pouch was a token of Commanders wife caring about Jing in a real way unlike the king and commander. He gave it to her because she saw what he did and looked afraid of him when he approached her, it was meant to touch her heart so she'd see past what he just did and see him. It looked like she was going to tell when she ran towards the door with it in her hand and changed her mind when she got to the door...
Oh yeah I didn't notice commander drew his sword but Jing didn't became the commander imo, he set the whole scene up so he could become the king. If he wanted to be the commander he could have just killed the commander and called for help for the king.
Also Jing has a different look on his face that whole act after he returns. He killed the man who no one has lasted longer than 3 rounds with, he got betrayed, he lost his mother, he returned alive, all that shit changes a person and the pouch being stained was a metaphor for that. Jing was a puppet troughout the whole movie but no one planned on him becoming the king which is enough of a reason to say he is a new person now.
Also the wife's decision is unknown to us as it is said "she is about to make the biggest decision of her life".
At the end when Ping hands the pouch to her, he tries to wipe the blood off of it. He cannot. This seems symbolic of their relationship. After he leaves, we see her slowly bringing the pouch to her chest as if to hug it, but then as if suddenly aware of herself, she shrieks and throws the sullied pouch away from herself. She wants to distance herself from it.
However, when she is looking out the door, her eyes go wild, suggesting her thoughts do as well. Yes, perhaps she will once again be tied to a man who requires her to keep awful secrets. She felt something for the tender lover railing against injustice. But he is now the "general" for whom the end justifies the means. Leaving her and the pouch behind to limp outside, his staff is a sword.