blind shaft

Blind Shaft aka "Mang Jing" is a very surprising movie. It manages to turn a story about coal workers, the lowest stratum of Chinese society, into a neatly-packaged thriller. It's half-expose, half-indictment of man. It reminds me of what a movie version of The Jungle would be like (the book just dragged on FOREVER. the movie would be nicely condensed haha). It seems like all the big Chinese hits here in the US are the romantic ones. Romantic in the sense that it deals with ancient China, not that they necessarily involve love (but all of them do). It's really quite strange, how so many of China's movies deal with the past. It'd be like if 40% of Hollywood movies were about the Wild Wild West. Anyhow, I liked this movie for it's seriousness and realism. By the way, this DVD has an interesting insert, which I will excerpt from: In order to make Blind Shaft, my crew and I experienced a lot of difficulties, including having to risk our lives at times. Now the film is finally finished, but to me the dangers are still here. The film will be banned from being released in China, and I will face the unfortunate destiny of being banned from making a film in China... Any country needs to promote it's bright and glorious side. But is it not true that the exposition and critique of the dark and ugly sides of human nature and society can in fact promote progress and development of the society even more? Go check out this film from the Main Library when you are in the mood for some "film magic directed with airtight ruthlessness..." - Elvis Mitchell, NYTimes