Howard Schumann
12-13-2004, 09:23 AM
Thanks Oscar Jubis for this recommendation
BLIND SHAFT (Mang Jing)
Directed by Li Yang (2003)
Although many disasters go unreported by mine operators afraid of prosecution, annual deaths in China's coalmines are thought to exceed 10,000. Only last week, 166 miners were killed in a fire in the Chenjiashan Coal Mine in China's Shaanxi Province, a disaster that came shortly after an earlier explosion in Central China in which 148 miners were killed. Local media reports suggest negligence and greed as the causes of the deadly fire at the Chenjiashan mine, specifically by management’s pursuit of a year-end bonus for extra-production while failing to take the time to properly ventilate a shaft. Blind Shaft, the savagely humorous first feature by Li Yang, dramatizes conditions in China's mines, making a direct attack on China's headlong dash to capitalism where greed seems more important than human life. Banned in China, the film combines gritty realism with uncompromising social commentary.
Adapted from a novel by Liu Qingbang, itinerant coalminers Song Jinming (Li Yixiang) and Tang Zhaoyang (Wang Shuangbao) devise a scheme to extort money from corrupt mine owners by convincing a fellow worker to pose as their relative. When they kill him and fake an industrial accident, they collect the compensation owed to a relative from the more than willing owner, eager to prevent an investigation into his mine's deteriorating condition. Tang is older and more cynical. Song still has plans to live a good life that includes schooling for his teenage son and both dutifully send part of their blood money home to their family, justifying their criminal behavior by saying "China has a shortage of everything except people".
Short of money, Tang recruits a naïve sixteen-year old boy, Yuan Fengming (Wang Baoqiang), whom he spots queuing for work in a city square but their carefully laid out plans begin to show cracks. The boy reminds Song of his own son and he develops protective feelings for him. Yuan, whose father may have been killed by the same scam artists, is anxious to find any kind of work to earn enough money to enroll in school and attaches himself to Song who pretends that he is his uncle. The boy, though a runaway out on his own, does not have any street smarts and his innocence is a sharp contrast to the wily scam operators. In his spare time, he reads History textbooks because they are "interesting" and spends his wages (after wiring some home) to buy the two conspirators a chicken, completely unsuspecting what their intentions are.
When the two find work in a nearby mine, Tang is eager to get on with the business, but Song keeps putting things off. The two plan to murder the boy but first want to make his last days a bit pleasurable, introducing him to wine, women and song. In a revealing scene at a bar, Song offers to sing a song called "Long live socialism", but he is reminded that the words have now been changed to "The reactionaries were never overcome. They came back with their US dollars, liberating China". Suspense increases until the film turns in an unexpected but deeply rewarding direction. Blind Shaft won the Silver Bear at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival and has received almost unanimous critical praise in the West. It is one of the best films I've seen this year.
GRADE: A-
BLIND SHAFT (Mang Jing)
Directed by Li Yang (2003)
Although many disasters go unreported by mine operators afraid of prosecution, annual deaths in China's coalmines are thought to exceed 10,000. Only last week, 166 miners were killed in a fire in the Chenjiashan Coal Mine in China's Shaanxi Province, a disaster that came shortly after an earlier explosion in Central China in which 148 miners were killed. Local media reports suggest negligence and greed as the causes of the deadly fire at the Chenjiashan mine, specifically by management’s pursuit of a year-end bonus for extra-production while failing to take the time to properly ventilate a shaft. Blind Shaft, the savagely humorous first feature by Li Yang, dramatizes conditions in China's mines, making a direct attack on China's headlong dash to capitalism where greed seems more important than human life. Banned in China, the film combines gritty realism with uncompromising social commentary.
Adapted from a novel by Liu Qingbang, itinerant coalminers Song Jinming (Li Yixiang) and Tang Zhaoyang (Wang Shuangbao) devise a scheme to extort money from corrupt mine owners by convincing a fellow worker to pose as their relative. When they kill him and fake an industrial accident, they collect the compensation owed to a relative from the more than willing owner, eager to prevent an investigation into his mine's deteriorating condition. Tang is older and more cynical. Song still has plans to live a good life that includes schooling for his teenage son and both dutifully send part of their blood money home to their family, justifying their criminal behavior by saying "China has a shortage of everything except people".
Short of money, Tang recruits a naïve sixteen-year old boy, Yuan Fengming (Wang Baoqiang), whom he spots queuing for work in a city square but their carefully laid out plans begin to show cracks. The boy reminds Song of his own son and he develops protective feelings for him. Yuan, whose father may have been killed by the same scam artists, is anxious to find any kind of work to earn enough money to enroll in school and attaches himself to Song who pretends that he is his uncle. The boy, though a runaway out on his own, does not have any street smarts and his innocence is a sharp contrast to the wily scam operators. In his spare time, he reads History textbooks because they are "interesting" and spends his wages (after wiring some home) to buy the two conspirators a chicken, completely unsuspecting what their intentions are.
When the two find work in a nearby mine, Tang is eager to get on with the business, but Song keeps putting things off. The two plan to murder the boy but first want to make his last days a bit pleasurable, introducing him to wine, women and song. In a revealing scene at a bar, Song offers to sing a song called "Long live socialism", but he is reminded that the words have now been changed to "The reactionaries were never overcome. They came back with their US dollars, liberating China". Suspense increases until the film turns in an unexpected but deeply rewarding direction. Blind Shaft won the Silver Bear at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival and has received almost unanimous critical praise in the West. It is one of the best films I've seen this year.
GRADE: A-