Director:
Li Yang
Starring:
Li Qiang
Wang Baoqiang
Wang Shuangboa
Release: 4 Feb. 04
IMDb
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Blind Shaft
BY: DAVID PERRY
Set in a world where morality is as hard to find as a decent
wage, Blind Shaft shows two men who have no qualms killing their fellow
mineworkers and then collecting the hush money from the mine owners by
posing as family members of the “accidental” deceased.
It’s an interesting premise, and the direct way director Li Yang deals with
it has a verité feel that raises the intensity of its drama. As the two
murderers prepare to kill off a young kid, the paternal emotions that rise
in one feels realistic, not like the contrivance that other filmmakers might
have made from it. In the process, Li poses a stunning critique of the
Economic Miracle, and the Chinese countryside he documents feels much truer
than that Zhang Yimou melodramas that often take the same stances. Even as
the film takes turns that momentarily feel inadvisable, the work still
returns to a competent grounding, and the finale is truly successful, as it
celebrates the innate humanity we all posses, no matter how much we’ve tried
to hide it.
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