The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang
The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang (神探蒲松龄, Shentan Pu Songling, also released as 神探蒲松龄之兰若仙踪) is a 2019 Chinese fantasy action comedy in which Jackie Chan plays a fictionalized version of the writer Pu Songling as a demon-hunting detective investigating the disappearance of young girls from a village.1 • 7 Directed by Yan Jia, it opened in mainland China on February 5, 2019, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, and grossed $22,799,838 worldwide, well below the expectations attached to a Jackie Chan holiday release.1 • 4 • 3
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Chinese title | 神探蒲松龄 (Shentan Pu Songling), alternate title 神探蒲松龄之兰若仙踪1 |
| Director | Yan Jia (credited as Vash on Rotten Tomatoes and Apple TV)1 • 6 |
| Release | February 5, 2019, mainland China, timed to the Lunar New Year1 • 3 |
| Runtime | 108 minutes; Mandarin and Cantonese1 |
| Worldwide box office | $22,799,838, of which China accounted for $22,687,1804 |
| Source material | Adapted from Pu Songling's story collection Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio)1 |
| Critical reception | 31% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from only a handful of reviews; fewer than 50 audience ratings2 |
Spoilers
Premise and story
Pu Songling, presented as a famous literary figure who wields the Yin-Yang Judgment as a supernatural detective, teams up with the constable Yan Fei (Austin Lin) to investigate the disappearance of girls in the town of Jinhua.1 He is aided by a group of friendly little demons with names such as "Zhu Shi Hu," "Pi Pi," "Wang You," and "Qian Shou," and the investigation leads into a tragic love story.1 • 10
The backstory draws directly on the best-known tale from Liaozhai Zhiyi. Yan Chixia (Ethan Juan) was in a former life a snake demon who met the human Nie Xiaoqian (Zhong Chuxi, billed internationally as Elane Zhong) and hid in her shadow under the name Ning Caichen. To give him a true human body, Xiaoqian traded her own shadow for his demon core, which turned him into the knight-errant Yan Chixia while she became a soul-sucking demon.1 In the main plotline, the demoness Xiaoqian abducts village girls in partnership with a mirror demon played by Lin Peng.9
Cast and production
The film was produced by iQIYI Pictures as the company's first release of 2019, with Sparkle Roll Media and Golden Shore Films & Television among the production companies.3 • 6 Alongside Jackie Chan, Ethan Juan, Zhong Chuxi, and Austin Lin, the cast includes Lin Peng, Qiao Shan, Pan Changjiang, Kingdom Yuen, and the Luu brothers.10 Filming took place in Zhangjiajie and at Liaozhai City in Zichuan, Zibo, in Shandong Province, and the theme song "Shuangsheng Yan" (双生焰) was performed by Zhang Liangying.11 iQIYI also produced a 23-minute VR version for viewing at Digital Domain Space VR cinemas across China.3
International circulation was limited: Well Go USA released the film on home video in the United States on January 21, 2020 as The Knight of Shadows, and it received a belated limited theatrical release in Russia (CIS) on February 23, 2023, adding $112,658 to its total.4
Box office and reception
The Lunar New Year slot was expected to deliver blockbuster returns, but the film opened at only No. 6 in the Chinese chart with about US$23 million over its first weekend, far short of expectations.5 A frequently cited factor was competition from The Wandering Earth, the science-fiction drama that opened the same weekend and became one of the biggest Chinese hits of the year.5
Critics generally praised Chan's performance while faulting the script. The Straits Times reviewer Benson Ang gave it 3 out of 5, judging that the film "goes off the rails" when a secondary melodramatic plot appears; The New Paper's Jasmine Lim gave it 3.5 out of 5, noting that Chan "oozes an easy, effortless, impish charm."2 The German site FILMSTARTS scored it 2.5 out of 5, arguing that the overloaded screenplay by Boham Liu tries to be a fantasy epic in the manner of A Chinese Ghost Story, fast action spectacle, and a tragic romance at the same time, and none of the genres fully works.5
The review by the Asian Film Critic website Asian Film Strike, written by LP Hugo, called the film visually lavish, singling out a fight in a mirror demon's lair in which the upper and lower halves of Chan's body fight independently, and credited first-rate contributions from composer Zhao Zhao, cinematographer Choi Yeong-hwan, and art director Jiu Cheng, but found the whole weighed down by childish humor, unpolished CGI, and a stock tragic love story.7 A review at Asian Movie Pulse similarly described weakly rendered computer-generated creatures that break immersion.8 On Rotten Tomatoes the film held a 31% Tomatometer score from a very small number of reviews, with fewer than 50 audience ratings.2
For Chan personally, the role marked a return to comic playfulness after the darker turns of The Foreigner (2017) and Bleeding Steel (2017), and reviewers consistently identified his charisma as the film's main asset.5 • 7
References
- 神探蒲松龄 (2019), 1905电影网
- The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang, Rotten Tomatoes
- iQIYI Announces Theatrical Release of "The Knight of Shadows" Starring Jackie Chan
- Shéntàn púsōng líng (2019), Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers
- Kritik zu The Knight Of Shadows, FILMSTARTS.de
- The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang (2019), Rotten Tomatoes
- The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang (2019) review, Asian Film Strike
- Film Review: The Knight of Shadows (2019) by Jia Yan, Asian Movie Pulse
- The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang, InCinemas Singapore
- The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang – Chinese Movie 2019, CPOP HOME
- 神探蒲松龄 详细资料, 1905电影网
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026
Your notes
© 2026 Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Embed a reference card.