Blind Shaft - **1/2
Now Playing: (2003, Li Yang) [seen in theatre]
Aside from my disappointment when I discovered that this movie wasn't about Richard Roundtree playing Zatoichi, Li Yang's verite-thriller was a satisfactory experience for me. The story centers around two miners who stage a con in which they kill a third miner and cover it up with a cave-in, convincing the mine boss that the deceased was a relative. After collecting their money, the scammers wire home some of it to their families, spend it on food and sex, and finally discover a new victim, a teenage boy saving up to resume his education. While the description of the protagonists' scheme sounds horrible, the film, without softening the characters, certainly makes their predicament understandable by presenting a China in which human life is a disposable commodity. "There's a shortage of everything besides people," one character says, and indeed every character in this film seems to be far from home, largely absent from his family's life and bound to be forgotten in the event of accidental death. The film is shot in pseudodocumentary style, but it surprisingly low-key in its storytelling, as the rotten lives of the two older men are juxtaposed with the loss of innocence by the youngster, up until the film's final shot, which leans a little heavy on the symbolism. Li Yang has certainly proven himself a director to watch.