Blind Mountain (2008)

Effective at showing how hard it is for even a spirited and educated woman to escape a community complicit in a brutal arranged marriage, but few characters have complexity.

Blind Mountain, the second film from fledgling Chinese filmmaker Li Yang, demonstrates many of the same qualities that made his first, Blind Shaft, one of the most promising directorial debuts of recent years.

Li's spare script works well with his choice to employ non-actors.

Blind Mountain becomes a tense struggle of would-be escape.

For all its regional specificity and grit, the majority of Blind Mountain’s turns could have come from any Hollywood-issue flick.

Colored fully within the lines and with scant few moments of fascination

For the second film in a row, [director] Li excoriates the values of an increasingly market-driven China, where people treat their fellows as products to be exploited, and scramble to get an edge on their 'competitors.'