MANG SHAN (BLIND MOUNTAIN)
China, 2007, 102 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Li Yang.
This is a fine but very grim and demanding film from China. It is the second film of the writer director. His first film in 2003 was Blind Shaft, a powerfully ugly story of miners who kill workmates, make the murder seem like an accident and take the financial compensation.
This time, the director takes us out of the city, sharing the bus ride of the young woman who believes she is going to a village to work. However, she is drugged and abducted, forced into a marriage and trapped in the village, trying to escape but failing, her letters never delivered. The film makes its audience share in the detail of the humiliation, the suffering, the degradation of the woman. It is highly emotional, a cry for human rights.
The characters, mostly sinister or obnoxious, are drawn vividly which makes the experience all the more harrowing. And the film does not let up. It is a strong cinema contribution to the theme of human slavery in the 21st century.
1.The Chinese film industry at the 21st century? Its look at recent history, critique of society, critique of law?
2.The picturing of the city, the contrast with the countryside, the village? Beauty, harshness? Remote? Authentically real? Musical score?
3.The title, Bai and her experience of the mountain, coming into the valley, trying to get out? The relentlessness of the mountain?
4.The introduction to the character of Bai, her happiness, on the bus, making friends, the prospect of the job, money for her family, hopes? The truck ride – her being drugged, stranded?
5.The village family, the issue of the money, her being kidnapped, bought? The hard family, the trap, the treatment? Her angry reaction, alone? Discovering the other women in the valley?
6.The situation and the kidnapping of women, the law, tradition, the role of men, expectations, the women as child-bearers, as slaves, hard work? The history of the women in the valley, Bai and her attempts to escape?
7.Bai, the initial horror, being tied up, allowed out, the marriage? Her not consenting? Writing the letters, the postman – and later discovering he was giving them to her husband? The kindliness of the teacher, bringing her books to read, the brutality of the sexual experience, her impassivity, the pigs coming, her feeding the pigs?
8.The teacher, the books, hope, his own story, lack of education, inviting Bai to the school, the celebration, the sexual liaison, his being expelled, her shame?
9.Her attempts to leave, running away, over the mountain, her being caught? The second escape, her skill, the lift, the money for the lift, getting the bus, her being ordered off the bus?
10.Her pregnancy, jumping to abort the child, finally accepting it, the birth, the boy – and the image of the people at the dam and the drowning of the baby girl?
11.The portrait of the husband, his ignorance, brutality? His father and the expectations? The mother, her going along with this? Their attitude towards Bai, looking down on her, feeding her, demanding work of her?
12.The children in the valley, some hope, helping the children, the boy posting the letter, her teaching the children, the growing class?
13.The child posting the letter, her father’s arrival, her upset that he was so late? The police accompanying him? The visit to the village chief – and his previous indifference? Saying he would handle the matter? The attempt at a deal?
14.The village people, their reaction, the husband, rough, attacking the police?
15.The final attack on the father, the brutality? The background of the hatchet present, Bai and the hatchet, her taking it, attacking her husband to save her father?
16.The sudden ending of the film, the emotional response to Bai’s situation and her desperation, the aftermath of the film with the shock ending?
