Synopsis It is a story about Anton (Tony Eusoff), a private investigator who had a rough childhood which put him under medical prescription to avoid temporal memory lost episodes from re-occuring. He then got into one mental episode which sucked him deep into a journey to confront the demon, The Gaunt Man (Radhi Khalid) , who in his past, has taken his mother away.
Into the dreamworld (spoiler alert) His life path is drawn by the choices he made from a gamebook titled ‘Violet Horizon’ (which has no author). It had made him a private investigator. One of the job has taken him to the founding of the gamebook titled ‘Adieu Sayangku’, which were the last words his mother uttered before being taken away. It is the key to their re-union.
Do you believe in fate?
That book eventually bring him to the final confrontation with The Gaunt Man and the re-union with his mother. His story then come full circle. But the story goes on. Dan (Megat Sharizal) picked up the ‘Violet Horizon’ and being taken on his own story path.
With the neo-noir, and Kuala Lumpur that has been transformed to a synthwave dystopia as the background, it takes you into a different world.
The magical gamebooks The gamebooks symbolise the choices we have as humans. Freewill. But it is still bound to the fate pre-determined by God.
Anton is his own Tok Dalang of his own Shadowplay (wayang kulit) play. But the choices he made has been written and scripted by Him.
I would be flipping burgers
Each character Anton encountered is a checkpoint. Louise (Susan Lankester, caucasian) is a white guardian angel in his quest and the dark Gaunt Man (dark skinned) is on the extreme opposite. His father is a character who come in the end to redeem himself to what he did to the family and paid his price. Anton’s mother in a form of Lamya (Juria Hartmans) played the biggest role in pointing him to the right direction.
The beast is slayed.
Why is this not a feature film (showing on cinemas) is beyond me. Perhaps it is The Gaunt Man with keris killed it on the stake.
I put this on par with other puzzle flicks Ive watched recently, Beautiful Washing Machine by James Lee and Haruan : The Snakehead by Dr. Razli Dalan. Hence I am missing alot of other things that can be said about Shadowplay in this short drunken review.
Watch Shadowplay it here https://vimeo.com/ondemand/shadowplaymovie
p/s : I have Stellar Dreams - Moment on loop for days now. Tony Pietra Arjuna, I’m a fan.
