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Director:
Li Yang

Starring:
Li Qiang
Wang Baoqiang
Wang Shuangboa

Release: 4 Feb. 04
IMDb

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.