Banned in China for its depiction of poverty and the inhumane conditions of coal miners (working in illegal cole mines), “Blind Shaft” is powerful tale about greed and murder, based upon the best seller and Laoshe Literature Prize winner of 2002, “Shen mu” (Sacred wood) by Liu Qingbang. That the novel was awarded and its writer considered one of China’s best writers, while the film was banned, shows, according to director Li Yang, that China is a country with many systems not in contact with each other.

Some argue, that the directors belonging to the sixth generation are depicting China as a country in ruins and only showing misery and poverty, in order to gain international attention. This may be true, but China is a country with so many contrasts and just because misery sells better than happy endings doesn’t mean that one should turn a blind eye to poverty or inhumanity.

“Blind Shaft” is fiction, but everything that is told happens daily. According to Li Yang, the official number of deaths in illegal coalmines were about 3000 in 2002, but the real figure is closer to 7000. He further points out, that the conditions he is depicting in “Blind Shaft” almost is luxury next to some mines. There are no regulations for these mines and its capitalism at its worst; As the foreman points out to the characters in the film, “China has a shortage of everything, but people.”

“I wanted to portray how human nature degenerates under the attraction of money, and the good side of humanity in this transitional period—how good confronts evil”, Li Yang says about “Blind shaft” and continues, “This isn’t just a Chinese problem but is common wherever there is rapid economic development. These issues were shown in the American films of the 1940s. Man’s desire for money and other attractions is boundless and this is how he loses his humanity.”

It is not just ones humanity that greed eats up, capitalism also corrodes values, even ideologies. This is underlined in a scene, where the anthem "Love Live Socialism" has been altered, so that now the counter revolutionaries return with US dollars so that everyone can get sexual climax.

In comparison to Jia Zhang-ke, another sixth generation director, Li Yang is completely different. Jia portraits the existential angst and alienation which comes from the transition of old and new values. Li’s protagonist is more of a humanist blinded by greed and desperation. Where Jia uses long takes and distinction, Li uses cinema varite techniques. Both directors have an undercurrent of wanting to do good. In “Blind shaft”, the characters constantly do good, even in a perverted sense, but ultimately their actions are empty next to their greed.

Winner of the Silver Bear in Berlin 2003 and both the Audience and Critics award at Deauville 2003, first time director Li Yang has with “Blind shaft” created an intense account of an underclass of humans worth nothing.

Henrik Sylow

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