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China · 2007
1h 35m
Director Li Yang
Starring Huang Lu, Youan Yang, Yuling Zhang, Yunle He
Genre Crime, Drama
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Bai Xuemei, a college student, is drugged, kidnapped and sold as a bride to a villager in the mist-shrouded Qinling Mountains of China's Shaanxi province. Trapped in the fiercely traditional town and abused by her husband, the young woman searches for allies as she plans her escape.
Li’s story is lean and economical, but deeply harrowing, as Xuemei--sympathetically played by debuting performer Huang Lu, the only classically trained actor in a cast of non-professionals--clings to her courage and tries again and again to escape.
Chicago Reader by Andrea Gronvall
The movie not only indicts the country's embrace of capitalism by showing how low people will sink to make money, it also denigrates the agrarian class--once celebrated as heroic under Mao--by portraying its members as illiterate barbarians concerned only with continuing their family lines.
Low on drama and originality, and high on deja vu, sophomore outing by writer-director Li Yang ("Blind Shaft," 2003).
Blind Mountain forces its way through numerous illogicalities and several plot lapses to a violently abrupt ending.
Twenty years ago, Li's film might have served as a warning; today, it rues a dehumanizing economic system run rampant that leaves one sad slave wife to muse, "It's easy to die. It's living that's hard."
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
This is a resolutely tough-minded, beautifully crafted film so compelling as to make bearable watching the nearly unbearable.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Blind Mountain is a reminder that art sometimes keeps the truth alive far better than the news.
Blind Mountain would be better-served by more touches of universality, as in the scene where a neighbor woman comforts Huang by saying, "All women go through this." That scene flirts with metaphor. The rest of the film too often descends into harangue.
The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett
The film's economical style, vivid cinematography and tremendous acting should attract audiences far and wide.
A stinging and frightening indictment of mainland China.