Blind Shaft (盲井 Mang jing)

Director: Li Yang

Screenplay: Li Yang, based on the best seller and Laoshe Literature Prize winner of 2002, Shen mu (Sacred wood) by Liu Qingbang

Producer: Li Yang

Director of Photography: Liu Yonghong

Art Director: Yang Jun

Cast: Li Yixiang, Wang Shuangbao, Wang Baoqiang

Studio: Bronze Age Films, Li Yang Filmworkshop, Tang Splendour Films, 2003

Description: color; sound; 92 minutes. Winner of the Silver Bear at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. .

Synopsis:

Song Jingming (Li Yixiang) and Tang Chaoyang (Wang Shuangbao) work as casual miners in illegal mines in northern China. Desiring for money and other attractions, they plot "accidental" deaths of other miners who they claim to be their relatives and collect their meager compensation. One day, they lure a naive young man from the countryside named Yuan Fengming (Wang Baoqiang) into working with them inside a mineshaft. However, Song begins to feel sympathetic toward the good-natured young man. The story leads to a totally unexpected twist ending.

About the director:

Li Yang (1960-): is an independent filmmaker. He spent his early years in Beijing as an actor and enrolled at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute to study film directing in 1985, but he did not remain in China after graduating in 1987. He went to Germany in 1988 to further his studies in drama and directing at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. His major field is documentary making. He also worked as an actor on German TV, and later took out German citizenship. Blind Shaft (2003) is his first feature film, which was shot in China underground, both literally and figuratively.

Questions to ponder: These are a few questions suggested for you to think about while reading the assigned articles and watching the film. Please jot down ideas and notes on details or scenes you think are relevant for class discussion. 1. Blind Shaft is directed by a German citizen and funded by oversea money. Will you still consider it as a Chinese film? How does it complicate our definition of Chinese national cinema? 2. The protagonists in the film are two serial killers. Does the film fit the genre of thriller? Why or why not? 2. How does the film represent China's transformation from socialism to capitalist development? What kind of social commentary does the film make about Chinese socialism and modernization? 3. The whole film was done by hand-held camera. How does that affect the visual style and audience's perspective on the film?

Relevant readings:

Web Sources:

"'There Is No Sixth Generation! Director Li Yang on Blind Shaft and His Place in Chinese Cinema," by Stephen Teo, Sense of Cinema.

"Going underground" (interview with Li Yang), The Guardian, Nov 3, 2003

"Coal Miners' Slaughter" (J. Hoberman's review of Blind Shaft), The Village Voice, Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2004.