Dance of shadows

Movie
German title	Dance of shadows
Original title	Watch the Shadows Dance
Country of production	Australia , USA
original language	English
Publishing year	1987
length	87 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Mark Joffe
script	Michael McGennan
production	Grahame Jennings Peter Ramster Robert Sanders Jan Tyrrell James Michael Vernon
music	Dave Skinner
camera	Martin McGrath
cut	Lindsay Frazer
occupation
Tom Jennings : Robby Mason Nicole Kidman : Amy Gabriel Joanne Samuel : Sonia Spane Vince Martin : Steve Beck Craig Pearce : Guy Duncan Doug Parkinson : Pete Gates Jeremy Shadlow : Simon Alexander Broun : Henry Laurence Clifford : Brian Simmons Paul Gleeson : Peter Hastings Mark Hennessy : Aloysius Askew James Lugton : Dead Bent Christopher Truswell : Hough Terry Brady : Lt. Trout Richard Jones : Gary Garter Teresa Jennings : Mrs. Mason

Dance of Shadows ( Watch the Shadows Dance ) is an Australian - American action film from Mark Joffe from the year 1987 . The film is also known as Nightmaster .

action

Robby Mason and Amy Gabriel attend the same secondary school as the same karate school run by former soldier Steve Beck. At night they take part in competitions in a factory building where they splash paint on each other. Mason is the current master of these games.

The group of students is provoked by a colleague who finds Gabriel attractive and later turns out to be a drug dealer. Gabriel happens to see him supplying Beck with drugs. Then Beck admonishes her not to tell anyone about it.

Mason has a serious conversation with his teacher, who says his grades are going down with the nightly games. She also says Mason sets a bad example to the other students. Gabriel, who also overhears this conversation, later tells the teacher to leave the students alone.

The day of a major martial arts competition comes, after which the championship of the Gotcha games is to be fought in the factory building . Mason observes Beck arguing with his dealer and killing him. Beck then tries to kill Mason and Gabriel. The game is canceled and the called police arrive while Beck chases the two students through the factory building. Finally he falls to the ground from a great height. Mason is kissed by Gabriel.

In the final scene, Mason and Gabriel sit next to each other during class. She kisses him at the beginning of the break, which marks his cheek with a red star-shaped spot.

Reviews

Michael Kohler wrote in his book Nicole Kidman that the director “relies less on a stringent story and elaborate characters than on battle sequences and atmospheric images ”. The fight scenes, however, are " not particularly well choreographed ", the images are " not filled with emotions ". The dialogues would “ have no real impact ”. It is also said that a few films of this type would end a career like Nicole Kidman's.

The lexicon of international films described the film as “a décor cinema designed to a high standard using the video clip aesthetic” . The “content and characters” would “remain just pale clichés from thriller and action cinema” .

literature

• Michael Kohler, Nicole Kidman , Bertz + Fischer Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-929470-42-X , pp. 20-22, 141

Web links

• Dance of the shadows in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Dance of the shadows at Rotten Tomatoes (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Kohler, Nicole Kidman , pp. 21-22
2. Jump up ↑ Dance of Shadows. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .