I'm never a big fan of Mr. Zhang Yimou especially in recent two decades. To me his all time best movie is "To Live"(1994). After 2000, since "Hero", his movies seems only focused on creating pretty images but all have very weak stories and most of the characters were too simple and tedious.
But this time "Shadow" is not a weak story, it looks like a simple story but in fact is a complicated one which have several storylines and everybody in this movie have multiple character sides, every characters has strong personalities and strong thoughts.
Although there are still some symbolic things which are kinda weird but I have to say this is one of his best in recent two decades.