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Blind Mountain

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Blind Mountain (2008)

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Reviews Counted:20

Fresh:16

Rotten:4

Average Rating:6.8/10

Consensus: Li's characters are imperfectly drawn, and the film follows a somewhat problematic arc, but Blind Mountain is nonetheless deeply compelling viewing.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Mar 12, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: Known for making films that expose the corrupt, seedy underbelly of modern China, director Li Yang found his previous outing, BLIND SHAFT, banned in its native country. Its successor, BLIND... Known for making films that expose the corrupt, seedy underbelly of modern China, director Li Yang found his previous outing, BLIND SHAFT, banned in its native country. Its successor, BLIND MOUNTAIN, shows that he hasn't lost any of his edge. This harrowing drama follows a college student who finds herself kidnapped and sold as a bride. [More]

Starring: Huang Lu, Yang Youan, Zhang Yuling, He Yunle

Starring: Huang Lu, Yang Youan, Zhang Yuling, He Yunle, Jia Yinggao, Zhang Youping

Director: Li Yang

Director: Li Yang
Screenwriter: Li Yang
Producer: Li Yang

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jan 6, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Li Yang, the award-winning Blind Shaft director and "master of cinematic tension" (Screen International), raises the stakes in Blind Mountain, a "resolutely tough minded, beautifully crafted film" (LA Times) of uncompromising intensity. In rural early 90's China, Bai (Lu Huang), a pretty and enterprising college student, travels to a remote, mist shrouded mountain village in the company of a pair of affable strangers. But what Bai thought was an expedition to gather herbs for resale turns into a "true crime shocker" (NY Times) when her fellow travelers sell her into slavery. "This can't be happening!" Bai screams on awakening from a drugged stupor to find herself "married" to a middle-aged pig farmer, and her freedom, identity, and dignity stolen. Yang's "hard-to-shake drama'(NY Times) depicts Bai's horrific ordeal with both gravity and the kind of "stunningly realistic" (New Yorker) detail that emphasizes the authenticity of the all too common predicament that she fights to escape. Contrasting the exotic beauty of its locale and a "very fine lead turn by Lu Huang" (Time Out London) with the cruelty of a system that tolerates human trafficking and a community that thrives on it, Blind Mountain premiered to "a thunderclap of applause and cheers from the audience " (Time) at the Cannes Film Festival.
  • Source: Kino on Video
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    Reviews for Blind Mountain

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    With its complex (and, at times, deeply problematic) intersection of an educated outsider with the stubborn realities of rural life, Blind Mountain explicitly harkens back to those classic works from the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, like Yellow

    Full Review Source: Reverse Shot | comment Comment
    08/08/09
    Leo Goldsmith
    Leo Goldsmith
    Reverse Shot

    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.

    Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
    12/14/08
    Nora Lee Mandel
    Nora Lee Mandel
    Film-Forward.com

    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.

    Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    Jeremy Heilman
    Jeremy Heilman
    MovieMartyr.com

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

    Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | comment Comment
    07/24/08
    Sean Means
    Sean Means
    Salt Lake Tribune

    It's a harsh portrait of a brutal segment of society, only relieved by an occasional handsome landscape shot (filmed in the Shaanxi province) that makes Bai's plight all the more compelling.

    Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
    07/11/08
    Walter V. Addiego
    Walter V. Addiego
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    [Director] Li was a documentarian before he switched to feature films with the highly praised 2003 feature Blind Shaft, and it shows in his raw style.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
    06/19/08
    Tasha Robinson
    Tasha Robinson
    Chicago Tribune
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    This is a resolutely tough-minded, beautifully crafted film so compelling as to make bearable watching the nearly unbearable.

    Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
    04/25/08
    Kevin Thomas
    Kevin Thomas
    Los Angeles Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

    Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
    03/17/08
    Ed Scheid
    Ed Scheid
    Boxoffice Magazine

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

    Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
    03/14/08
    David Fear
    David Fear
    Time Out New York

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

    Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
    03/13/08
    Chris Cabin
    Chris Cabin
    Filmcritic.com

    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.'

    Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
    03/13/08
    Noel Murray
    Noel Murray
    AV Club

    Li's bold, angry film depicts a merciless society completely defined by commerce.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    03/12/08
    Ken Fox
    Ken Fox
    TV Guide's Movie Guide

    Even trimmed, the film is a stinging and frightening indictment of mainland China.

    Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
    03/12/08
    V.A. Musetto
    V.A. Musetto
    New York Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Blind Mountain, the second feature from Li Yang, is a reminder that art sometimes keeps the truth alive far better than the news.

    comment Comment
    03/12/08
    Manohla Dargis
    Manohla Dargis
    New York Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Easily fits the paradigm parodied by Funny Games. The difference: This movie actually has a political point.

    Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
    03/11/08
    J. Hoberman
    J. Hoberman
    Village Voice
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    The heat of empathetic outrage that Li generates from the audience is enough to make the theater combust.

    Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
    03/06/08
    Jan Stuart
    Jan Stuart
    Newsday
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Li's documentary approach brooks no sentimentality in its portrayal of the loss of innocence.

    Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
    03/06/08
    Maria Garcia
    Maria Garcia
    Film Journal International

    Harrowing but limpidly shot.

    Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
    05/23/07
    Lee Marshall
    Lee Marshall
    Screen International

    Whether one responds or not to the pic's (certainly valid) theme... pic has a deadening lack of dramatic development and a plethora of thinly drawn characters.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    05/21/07
    Derek Elley
    Derek Elley
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Even though Chinese authorities forced the director to make many cuts before it could be shown in Cannes, the movie retains enormous political impact as well as being a moving drama.

    Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
    05/21/07
    Ray Bennett
    Ray Bennett
    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
     
     
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