The Comparison between Blind Shaft and Blind
Mountain
There are many movies reflect the social reality in
china. In this paper, I will analyze the movie Blind Shaft, and compare
it with another movie, which I choose from outside class and is the derivative
if the Blind Shaft at the same time--Blind Mountain. First, I
will introduce the main plots of the two movies, and analyze the key word “blind”
in each movie by analyzing the scene that impressed me mostly in the movie,
then find out the common element that both of them reflect to the world.
Blind Shaft is a social documentary
reflets the people at the bottom of the society how struggle for making money.
This movie was directed by Li Yang. The movie described the story about two man
named Tang Chaoyang and Song Jinming how became rich by using tricks. They will
be quite matey withe the migrants who can not find a job, then regard them as
their family, taking them to the private coal mine. When they working in the
coal mine, Tang Chaoyang and Song Jinming will make “safety misadventure” and
kill the migrants so that get compensation from the owner of the private coal
mine. At that time, when there was an accident happened in the coal private,
the owner will cover the truth and don not let the government know. Some owners
of the private coal mines even have relationships with the officers of the
government. Tang Chaoyang and Song Jinming followed a sixteen-year-old teenager
Yuan Fengming who was too innocent to be deceived by the two persons. Tang
Chaoyang and Song Jinming used the old ways making the mock ID card fo Yuan
Fengming and recognized him as Song Jinming’s nephew. They came a small coal
mine became the worker in here. Yuan Fengming was a studious, unsophisticated,
innocent and considerate boy, his characters always made Song Jinming thought
of his own son who was studying in the school. Song Jinming’s feeling of
commiseration made him hesitate, and the conflict between Tang Chaoyang and
Song Jinming was increasingly. Tang Chaoyang let Song Jinming made the deadline
of killing Yuan Fengming. They invited Yuan Fengming to drink the wine before
he died, when they were ready to kill Yuan Fengming, Tang Chaoyang hit the Song
Jinming and was ready to kill Yuan Fengming, at this time, Song Jinming stood
up and killed Tang Chaoyang and died too, Yuan Fengming run out of the coal
mine. The background of this movie was the place of Lei Bo. From 2007 to 2011,
there were many accidents happened in Lei Bo. All these accidents involved the
migrants were killed instead of “safety misadventure”. Blind Shaft was the
epitome of these accidents (The Introduction of Lei Bo).
The scene that impressed me mostly was that when Song
Jinming and Tang Chaoyang could not find Yuan Fengming at the market, they were
both worried naturally. When they found Yuan Fengming, Song Jinming hit Yuan
Fengmiung in spite of himself, at the moment he heard that Yuan Fengming
disappeared because he bought the chicken for Song Jinming, he could not do
that anymore. This scene showed Song Jinming was touched by Yuan Fengming so
that he could not make a decision to kill him. Song was not a wicked person
inside his heart. This was foreshadowed the end of the movie.
An appreciative movie must include the elements of
good script, wise director, skillful photography and excellent actors (Blind
Shaft). Blind Shaft done these. Blind Shaft protruded the
word-blind in several aspects. At the beginning of the movie the screen was all
dark, only lights from the miners’ hats. The audiences can not see the faces of
actors clearly. Miners’ face were covered by the coal’s black. All these
elements showed the blind of the environment that miners had worked in. The
scene appeared at the title touched the audiences, several miners huddled in
the miners’ truck declining slowly with the rope, the mine mouth was very
small, a little white light illuminated from the mine mouth, the miners’ truck
carried them to the underground more and more deeper, the little light was
hardly to see until to the dark. The road just like they were going to the
inferno, to the dark side of the world, to the blind. This was the first
meaning of the blind. Coal mine was a deep well, miners could not see too much
in the underground, they just could work, eat and have a rest relied on the
weak light. Song and Tang were the miners worked in such an environment, their
heats and mind became dark and blind, so they killed people in the mine, and
put the dead person into the pond located in the depth of the coal mine, this
person chatted with them several minutes ago. Their minds were blind. Under the
pressure of poverty of life, Song and Tang both became the murderers, lost the
morality and the sense of shame. They pretended as the families of the dead
miner, asked for money from the owner of the coal mine. People were moved by
their pity, but who would know that when they got the money, the ashes of the
dead were threw away to the rubbish dump at random by them. They were both
blind when faced the money, they became the monsters saw only money, they even
wore the leather shoes of the dead. The heart of the owners of coal mines were
blind, they used 30,000 RMB to spend life, they blocked the passage of
information, they did not care any people’s life. They said to the miners: “If
you are afraid to do this job, you can go. There is nothing in China except
humans.” The owners of the coal mines regarded human as a tool, if someone
died, another will come.
Another movie I choose to analyze is Blind Mountain.
This movie was directed by the same director-Li Yang, and the second movie
after Blind Shaft. Blind Mountain turned his eyes to a long-term
problem existed in China--kidnap and sell people. 22-year-old female college
student Bai Xuemei wanted to find a job, she met Hu Xiaoxiao and be told a way
could earn money, so Bai followed Hu to the mountainous area to purchase
Chinese medicinal herb. Bai felt asleep hen they arrived there, after she woke
up, she knew the truth that she was kidnapped and sold to a villager-Huang
Degui one of this village. Bai wanted to go home, but refused by the Huang
family. Huang wanted to make love with Bai, and be hit by Bai, so the angry
Huang raped Bai. After this, Bai lost the freedom and forced to live in this
strange and barbaric village. Bai Xuemei tried all ways to escape from there,
but it was difficult. Every time when she was catched, she would suffer the
beating from Huang Degui, but even so, she did not give up the thought to
escape. She turned to local government and police for help more than once. But
they were all cold to ignore this crime, and they thought it was normal. Bai
Xuemei gave birth to a boy made Huang relaxed their vigilance to Bai, under the
help of teenager Li Qiangshan, she connected her parents. There were two types
of the end of the movie. One was showed in China, Bai’s father took two
policemen and helped her escaped from the village finally. And another was
showed in abroad, Huang knew that Bai’s father wanted to take away his “wife”,
he wanted to conceal Bai, when Huang and Bai’s father had a quarrel, Bai hit
her “husband” with a cooker chopper in order to save her father... The two
different endings reflected the two kinds of reality. People in China may
intent to have a happy ending, which makes the audiences feel comfortable and
hopeful. The overseas ending intends to a more realistic society, the audiences
may feel distressed about the ending.
This movie also protruded the word-blind in some
aspects. The first one was the environment, Bai Xuemei was kidnapped and sold
to the mountainous area, this was a small village surrounded by mountains,
people lived in the mountain could not walk out the mountain. The villagers
just saw the mountains, they had a narrow vision. The environment made them
blind. The “blind” in the movie was outstanding, especially explained by the
people in the movie. There were some scenes reflected the blind. The first
scene impressed me most was Bai Xuemei was raped by Huang Degui with the help
of his parents. The inhuman treatment to Bai Xuemei made the audiences felt
indignant. The beginning of the movie made people could not bear to see, the
attitude villagers treated Xuemei was naturally, they regarded such things as
common. Xuemei was tied in the house, and her “husband” Huang Degui was
celebrating outdoors with their friends and relations. Huang said the toast as:
“Who does not drink this wine will become the bachelor all his life, include
his son and grandson, even the next life.” Near the window, some children
looked at Xuemei struggling on the bed. The first few days of night, Huang
Degui was turned out of the door by Xuemei that made him lost face before the
villagers. His father with a more jovial appearance even rebuked hin could not
handle a woman. Thus Huang’s parents helped Huang hold down Xuemei so that
Huang raped his “wife” (The Death of Eyes). After he had done the crime,
he sit next his father with a happy face, his father handed over a cigarette to
praise him. His mother was a woman too, but she never sympathized Xuemei, she
thought the money could not be spent without avail, although she knew that was
wrong, she just said the words to Xuemei: “Things has happened, you must get
married, whoever you married is same. If you become my son’s wife, we will not
ill-treat you...” Except the Huang’s family, Huang’s cousin was contemptible
too for cheating Xuemei for sex. Many scenes of the movie showed the humanity
of the villagers. Li Yang explained that the “blind” in the name of movie
referred to the death of people’s eyes.
The same elements both movie showed in the movies was
the dark side of people’s nature, and in order to satisfy their own desire,
they ignored the suffering of others. In Blind Shaft, Song and Tang made
plan to kill the earthy Yuan for making money. Their hears and minds were
covered with darkness so that they could not see the suffering of others. But
at the ending of the movie, Tang’s plan was disturbed by Song and saved Yuan,
Yuan got the death benefits accidentally. Maybe when Yuan saw his father’s
shoes he had known the truth, but when the death of Song, he felt vacant, he
saw the smoke flowed from the stovepipe where Song and Tang’s dead body were
burned. Yuan could continue his study but felt empty inside his heart. The
audiences may feel comfort for this movie has a good ending, the criminal had
been punished by the God. In Blind Mountain, the ending of this movie in China
made audiences feel comfort too for Bai Xuemei escaped from the place where her
nightmare started finally. Both these two movies explained the blind of people
in the bottom of society, they had their kind in their own way but lacked of
the morality of caring others. They were selfish for satisfying their desire
only.
The “blind” Li Yang want to show the people in the
world was the ignorance of the law, and the lack of the morality among people
as well as the lack of knowledge. Thus lack makes the dark side of the nature
is amplified. Maybe the maker of the social evil is neither a person, nor a
group, they are the onlookers pretend to can not see the criminal. The point is
improve the population quality of common people.
Reference
The Introduction of Lei Bo
Blind Shaft
The Death of Eyes
