electric shadow tell a story about a girl name ling ling and her friend mao dab against the backdrop of the cultural revolution in china . the film start with dab ( xia yu ) and a teenager who love movie and accidentally fall into a brick wall with his bicycle . the wall collapse and a girl pick up a brick and smash dab on the head . then the girl and who seem unable to speak and ask dab to fee her fish while she have to stay with the police . he agree and in the girl apartment he find her diary and learn that she be indeed his old friend ling ling ( qi zhongyang ) . while he be read her story we see the image and start with ling ling mother and how she always want to be a famous actress or singer and how ling ling be bear a an unwanted child and how her mother want to end her own life but due circumstance change her mind . ling ling mother become a care mother who want nothing but the best for her daughter . dab enters the story and at first a bully for ling ling but after a while they become best friend . in the meanwhile ling ling mother spend a lot of time with uncle pan and the town movie operator . this be of course where the kid find their love for the movie and and ling ling mother find the love for a new man . i should say nothing more about the story . we understand thing will get complicate since dabing and ling ling do not recognize each other when he be smack with the brick . we also see that some terrible thing must have happen to ling ling . all those thing be for you to discover with this terrific film from first time director xiao jiang . in a way this film be about love movie and the way cinema paradiso be that . the director tell the audience that she be honor with this comparison and but it seem only right . electric shadow be original in it own way and but show a lot of old chinese picture and honor them . the performance ask again for comparison with cinema paradiso . the adult be good and especially ling ling mother and but the child performer here be the best thing . the film show them most of the time when they be around six year old . the way kid around that age say anything that come to mind be perfectly portray here and with two effective kid for ling ling and dabing . much of the humor in the film come from them and their moment together . although the final moment of the film play in a conventional way the scene work . everything come together and make electric shadow a real finished picture and accessible for large audience than a lot of other asian film . the film have it flaw . it shift back and forth in time where it do not really have to and like the director just choose a couple of moment to do so . the same with the narration . sometimes we hear dab and his life story and sometimes we hear him read her diary and sometimes we hear ling ling herself like she be read or write her diary . both thing do not really matter and but show how hard it be to make the right choice and especially when you direct a film for the first time .