BLIND MASSAGE/TUI NA

China, 2014, 114 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Lou Ye.

Blind Massage may have had great success in its country of origin, but although it has received good critical reviews, it is probably very difficult for an audience outside China to comprehend what is going on. A big part of the difficulty is identifying each of the characters and being able to stay with them in their interactions and their character development.

The film offers background to a phenomenon that is prominent in China, blind men and women being able to perform massage and having a great number of clients. There is a great deal of detail of work in these establishments.

The opening of the film focuses on a young boy who loses his sight in an accident and is introduced to surviving by sound. As an adult he is introduced to massage, and makes connections with fellow-workers. There are two blind leaders, who are referred to as Boss, whose lives audiences also follow, especially one who has difficult financial situations.

The young blind man also becomes friendly with a prostitute in a brothel, and this also for forms part of the plot development. Surprisingly, later, he is assaulted and bashed and recovers something of his sight – and then disappears from the film.

The style of the photography also make some difficulties in some audiences, hand-held camera work as well as colour grading which is often murky, perhaps using this atmosphere and sometimes darkness for audience understanding of the difficulties for the blind masseurs.

A sympathetic story and characters studies which should repay attention – but singling out which character is which as well as the stylistic difficulties with colour grading and darkness, it has difficulties in gaining a wide audience.