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BLIND SHAFT’ 盲井 (‘Mang Jing’) Director – Li Yang

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BLIND SHAFT’ 盲井 (‘Mang Jing’) Director – Li Yang WINNER: SILVER BEAR - BERLIN INT’L FILM FESTIVAL 2003 (Best Artistic Contribution – Li Yang – For Screenwriting and Directing) WINNER: BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTOR (WANG BAOQIANG), AUDIENCE AWARD & CRITICS PRIZE – DEAUVILLE ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2003 WINNER – BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE - TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2003 WINNER – FILM AND LITERATURE AWARD - FILM BY THE SEA FESTIVAL 2003 WINNER – GRAND PRIZE - BERGEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2003 WINNER – Silver Giraldillo (best scriptwriter and director) - Festival de Sevilla, Cine y Deporte 2003 WINNER – BEST DIRECTOR IFF BRATISLAVA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2003 WINNER – SILVER FIREBIRD AWARD – HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2003 WINNER – BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (and two other awards) - BUENOS AIRES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2003 SPECIAL COMMENDATION: THE GUARDIAN NEW DIRECTOR’S AWARD – EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2003 WINNER - BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY, BEST NEWCOMER (WANG BAOQIANT) - GOLDEN HORSE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION 2003 WINNER – BEST ACTOR (WANG BAOQIANG, WANG SHUANGBAO, LI YIXIANG) ‘BLIND SHAFT’ 盲井 (‘Mang Jing’) Director – Li Yang Starring - Li Yixiang, Wang Shuangbao, Wang Baoqiang ‘BLIND SHAFT’ (‘MANG JING’) SYNOPSIS A modern fable of greed, murder and innocence set in the illegal coal mines of Northern Chi- na… One clear winter morning, in one of the many poorly equipped coal mines in Northern China, Song Jinming and Tang Chaoyang begin another day of hard work with Tang’s brother Chaolu who has arrived only a few days ago. In the depths of a mineshaft suddenly Song and Tang struck Chaolu with a pickaxe and kill him. They make the mine collapse and then escape from the ‘accident’ unscathed. While pretending to lament the death of his brother, Tang and Song threaten to report the incident to the local government and police, in order to ex- tort compensation monies from the mine owner. Fearing exposure of the mine’s illegal operations, the mine owner finally give in to their demands. After lea- ving and sending their loot home, the partners start scouting for another ‘relati- ve’. At the local train station which is full of itinerant job-seekers, Tang find another potential victim – a sixteen-year-old peasant boy from the countryside – Yuan Fengming. Yuan’s father has left home to work at the mines but never returned. Yuan therefore has no choice but to quit school and find work himself. Tang agrees to help Yuan find a job and introduce him to the mine owners under one condition – he must agree to pretend to be Song’s nephew. However, Song believes that Yuan, being a child, should not be killed as this is ‘not the right thing to do’ in this line of ‘business’. He disagrees with Tang but soon relents upon Tang’s insistence, and the plan is carried forward. Yet Song tries to concoct a diversion to ‘qualify’ Yuan as a victim. The relationship between the partners is gradually transformed by Yuan’s innocence. In the last minute, the partners’ scheme takes an unexpected turn… ABRIDGED SYNOPSIS Two greedy men plot the murder of a 16-year-old peasant boy in a poorly-e- quipped coal mine in Northern China. Pretending the boy is a relative, they count on extorting money from the mine owner after the boy's "accidental" death. But the boy's innocence creates tension and unexpected twists in the murderous mineworkers' scheme ... ‘BLIND SHAFT’ (‘MANG JING’) DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT / PRODUCTION NOTES In order to make ‘Blind Shaft’ my crew and I experienced a lot of difficulties, including ha- ving to risk our lives at times. Now the film is finally finished, but to me the dangers are still here. This film will be banned from being released in China, and I will face the unfortunate destiny of being banned from making a film in China. Many friends asked me, why must I risk my life to make a film like this? ‘Blind Shaft’ is a film that realistically portrays the lives of the coal miners at the bottom stra- tum of the Chinese society today. Employing a documentary-like cinematic style, it simply and directly pushes the lives of theseordinary people in front of the audience. There are no deliberate melodramas or dramatization. It just portrays a real story. After the modernization and opening of China, thousands of private coal mines have appea- red. This is originally a good thing, but has turned into many coal miners’ nightmare. The safety precautions and facilities in these private coal mines do not meet the basic safety requi- rements set by the government. The mine owners do not spend money on buying the neces- sary safety equipment, but rather use huge sums of money to bribe the party cadres and go- vernment bureaucrats, in order to obtain the various permits needed to operate the mines. These bureaucrats totally disregard the lives of the miners in these transactions of money andpower. The miners work in extremely dangerous conditions and they use very primitive mining methods. They use iron pickaxes and spades for digging, and horse carriages for transporting the coal. There are almost no modern equipment and there is no protection and guarantee for the the lives of the miners at all. In 2001, a major accident involving a collapsed mine in Nante in the Guangxi Province resul- ted in the death of more than forty miners. But the mine owner managed to secretly cremate and bury theremains of the miners under the help and support of the local government, party chiefs and police department. This incident was subsequently exposed by two brave and con- scientious reporters. But this is only one of the countless stories in China today. According to statistics, an average of more than 7,000 coal miners die each year in accidents. But these are only official figures. Many more deaths go unreported and unnoticed. In the last twenty years, China has undergone major changes. Its economy has been growing with rapid speed. But following the economic miracle the polarization of the Chinese society has also widened seriously. The livelihood of the people in the lower strata of society has become worse and worse. Driven by poverty, tens ofthousands of peasants leave their homes to find work elsewhere. Seduced by money, moral standards rapidly deteriorate and corrup- tion is rampant. In order to obtain money, those in power are corrupt, while those without power ‘BLIND SHAFT’ (‘MANG JING’) DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT/PRODUCTION NOTES sell their bodies and soul, or kill and steal. Under the pressure of heavy duties and taxes, ma- ny peasants can hardly make a living by growing crops. Many children have to stop going to school and start working because they cannot pay the school fees. But the dark reality of the- se social conditions have been deliberately covered up. The lives of these people living in the bottom strata have been totally neglected and forgotten. On television and newspapers, all people can see are just the big achievements of the develo- ping Chinese economy. But who is there to care about people: human sentiments, the souls and mind of the people, and social morality? Who cares about this huge mass of people struggling at the lowest stratum of the Chinese society? In order to make this film, I searched and visited many coal mines across almost half of Chi- na. One time, soon after I took a few pictures with my camera, I was immediately sur- rounded by the mine owner and the police. I was very nervous as they had guns in their hands, and they threatened to take me away. Luckily one of my friends was also a local cadre and he lied to say that I was only a tourist and not a reporter. Only then did I manage to es- cape danger. After I went back to Beijing I was told that the local government officials called for an emergency meeting to deal with my case. They considered me a reporter and were very worried that I would expose many of their shady dealings. My friend was thereafteralso implicated. Perhaps, particularly because of the fact that my life was threatened myself, that I made the resolution to finish this film and to tell the truth to the audience. Even though I faced further dangers, my human conscience kept me on. Any country needs to promote its bright and glorious side. But is it not true that the exposi- tion and critique of the dark and ugly sides of human nature and society can in fact promote progress and development of the society even more? ‘BLIND SHAFT’ (‘MANG JING’) Excerpt from an Interview with the Director by South China Morning Post, Hong Kong 18.1.2003 At least 10,000 people die each year in China’s illegal mines. Now a film is shedding light on the labourers who risk everything to scrape a living in the dark “China has a shortage of everything but people,” the boss of an illegal coal mine quips in a new underground film exposing the grim lives of the mainland’s migrant miners. Millions of uneducated labourers roam the country looking for work. For mine owners, the migrants are an expendable resource. Many risk death in illegal mines for a monthly wage of 1,000 yuan (HK$940), several times the average monthly income of farm workers. … Those real conditions mean living in cramped dormitories,with workers often housed in crude huts or tents. In arid northern China, miners sometimes go for weeks without washing, Li says. Anyone fit enough for hard labour, including escaped criminals, can find work in illegal mines – if they can find them. Mine owners often hire local thugs to guard tracks lea- ding to the mines and local police and officials accept money to turn a blind eye or even offer additional protection.
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