Dr Jacques COULARDEAU A very bleak story. Two miners are teaming together to entrap a young teenager, underage if possible, on the run for any reason whatsoever into coming to work with them underground. The mines are managed by bosses who do not want problems. So they have some kind of premium, or contract for the casualties of accidents, 30,000 yuans per dead. The two miners who want to be rich as fast as possible kill the third one as soon as they can, pocket the premium and run away to the next mine, and the next escaping teenager. It is a simple business, and yet it is not that simple. It is dark in the mines and you do not see very well. So one day, circumstances will reshuffle the pack of cards. One of the two will be impatient and the two will end on the wrong side of some road, of some dynamite. And guess who is going to get the money, and the two urns with the ashes? The film is not interesting because of that, because we more or less know what is going to happen. That kind of undertaker's job cannot last very long. What is interesting is the realistic vision of China's industrial and mining areas today. People have to move away from their families to find work. They have to pay for their schooling or the schooling of their children. They also have the opportunity to work whenever they want. Working conditions are hard. Living conditions are hard too. But It is not that long ago that we had the same situation in Europe, and the present situation in China is what we had in Europe at the end of the 1950s or even beginning of the 1960s. It is only in 1968 that the situation really improved in France with a 13% average pay rise in May 1968. It is exactly what is happening in China this year with a minimum 20% hike on the minimum wage all over China, and the more developed a province the higher the hike is. It may create some inflation. It may cause the yuan to go up slightly. It may make exports slightly more difficult. But the country is dynamic enough not to recapture in productivity what they lose in labor cost. They are catching up so fast that we may not even see them overtaking us. And that is the interest of this film. It does not show a bleak situation centering on exploitation, the hardships and suffering of the working class. It centers on what the desire to catch up with wealth may produce in some minds, even may make some become criminals. A society like this one that is growing, as for their industry, at a 13.9% rate may make some dizzy and envious and impatient to reach the object of their dream faster than honestly possible. An interesting film that shows China is also catching up in that industry too.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

bob the moo Song and Tang are two conmen who make their money through murder and deception. They live among the unemployed drifters of China, latch onto lonely young men, convince them to pretend to be one of their relatives and then the three get a job together in a mine. After a few days, Song and Tang kill their companion and make it look like a cave in - extorting the bosses for compensation in return for silence. They have been doing this for a while to good profit and plan to continue when they pick up the sixteen year old Yuan, creating a moral crisis for Song.I was not sure what this film was about when I sat to watch it but the fact that it had been made as an underground film (literally) without the permission of the Government and that was enough reason for me to give it a bit of my time. As one would expect from such a film, the plot is a mix of narrative and comment. The comment is delivered in the form of us seeing the working conditions and the poverty `enjoyed' by the citizens who are outside of what we would consider the `proper' economic system. In this regard the film is interesting if not totally gripping. The narrative is just as gripping but it is less satisfying as it seems to be secondary to the other aspects of the film. The characters do just enough to carry the story along, in fact they win over the audience well enough for us to care about all the main players - essential in a film that is driven more by them than by action.To that end, the cast (a mix of professionals and non-professionals) deliver the goods pretty well. Yuan's innocence and dedication to the characters is key to the film and Wang carries this off well. The elder Wang is also good but has a simpler character to deliver - however it is to his credit that his `bad' guy never lost my interest. Li is the best thing in the film even if he goes through an fairly recognisable crisis of confidence. Yang Li's documentary background shows through with the realistic direction and the great use of locations - all the more impressive as many of them must have been difficult to shoot in.However, the lack of events means that the narrative is a little less than satisfying when it comes to the end. We more or less know where it is going and the film uses the ending as much as a closure to the narrative as it is a further comment of the people's place within the system. Despite this it is still worth seeing even if it may not match the hype that the awards and reviews on this page would have you believe. Overall a good film that is worthy with good direction and acting even if the commentary of society and narrative don't sit as well together as one would hope.

alexduffy2000 "Blind Shaft" is a good/great film about two con men. One of the con men is more vicious than the other, and has lost all feelings for other human beings. The other less-vicious con man still has some pangs of conscience, but both will do whatever it takes to survive.This is like a small "Goodfellas" in that the two crooks, and the mine bosses they work for, are corrupt, and have no qualms about criminally exploited those around them. They live in a world of crime, and act accordingly. The Chinese street scenes ring with authenticity, no Westerners are present, this the China that hundreds of millions of Chinese see every day - poor, impoverished, corrupt, desperate, where the Communist party has long since abandoned Communism, and Socialism is just an empty slogan.Nevertheless, there are good, compassionate people in this cynical environment. This film is really about one man's "redemption", the less negative of the two con man, and his realization that his destructive path in life is wrong. I'm writing cryptically because I don't want to spoil what the con is, I recommend this film highly, and I think it will play just as well on the small screen as on the large. See it on the big screen or DVD, but just see it!

lorenzo-8 Mesmerizing and stark. Yang Li's documentary background is reflected in the ultra realistic look and feel of the film. Powerful and no b.s. It reminded me of the best of U.S. films from the 1970's. One particular sequence recalled The Last Detail but with higher stakes. This should be an influential film, however, it probably won't get the exposure it deserves.