Blind Shaft

This underground feature by a first time director (Li trained as an actor and went on to study in Germany) combines the strengths of other recent indie films from China with some of the weaknesses of government approved studio movies. Two murderous con-men roam northern China taking casual work in the region's dangerous and unregulated coalmines. They pick up stray, unemployed kids, kill them in faked mining accidents and then pose as aggrieved relatives demanding compensation. The climax is at once expected and unpredictable. Strengths: fluid location filming, often in clearly difficult conditions, and credible performances from the mainly non-pro cast. Weaknesses: the underlying reliance on melodrama, and a regrettable tendency to spike the naturalistic dialogue with pontifications on China.