90
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Deftly swings to a spartan, engrossing climax, and the final twists spell out what the murderers are made of and the setting responsible for creating them. It is a true piece of film magic.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
San Francisco Chronicle by Carla Meyer
Good storytelling.
80
Has a low-key power that comes as much from its off-handed approach to the dark material as from any manipulative techniques.
90
Blind Shaft means to leave the viewer dazed, and it does.
88
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
A brilliantly spare and poignant tragicomedy that projects such savage self-criticism of China's "economic miracle" that the film has been banned at home.
80
Powerful stuff from writer-director Li Yang that's both an uncompromising indictment of the human cost of China's evolving market economy and an nail-bitingly suspenseful thriller.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Blind Shaft, a well-acted and well-produced film, is a quiet though searing indictment of contemporary China.
75
Variously been described as a thriller, a muckraking exposé and even a satire -- and its refusal to fit neatly into a genre is only part of why it's so utterly disturbing.
60
A little slow for a crime story, and a little obvious with its anti-capitalism message.
75
Less striking for its storyline than for the world it presents -- a rural moonscape of coal-dust, casual environmental disaster, and atavistic behavior.