Coalmining, a dangerous and dirty business, is the occupation of the protagonists of Blind Shaft (Mang jing). China has plenty of coalmines, some of which operate illegally. Tang Zhaoyang (played by Wang Shuanghao) and Song Jinming (played by Li Yixiang) are veteran coalminers who have come up with a scheme to profit from serial murders in the mineshaft. They befriend a coworker, pretend to be a relative, fake a landslide, then kill him, and then extort money from the coal mine operators, who fear that a police investigation of the death will expose their illegal operation. Then they move on to another mine to repeat the same scam. When the film begins, one such scam is run successfully, so they take their money to town to recruit another patsy, though Song first sends some of his earnings to his family. Soon, Tang discovers clean-cut sixteen-year-old Yuan Feingming (played by Wang Baoqiang), whose father has been away from his family and whose sister needs money to go to school. On the ruse that Yuan is Song's nephew, they manage to get employment at another mine. However, Yuan is a very decent boy. He reads an "interesting" history textbook, refuses to have sex with a prostitute, arranges to send his first paycheck to his sister, and uses his second paycheck to buy a live chicken for the consumption of his two friends as well as neighboring miners. Song, who believes that he and Tang may have killed Yuan's father, does not feel comfortable about killing Yuan, but Tang is more ruthless. The ending, however, is not what the serial killers originally plan. Clearly, the AFLCIO is right that working conditions in some Chinese mines are not up to international standards, notably in matters of worker safety and housing. The film also demonstrates that many men are out of work in China, and they line up awaiting employment much as do illegal aliens around Home Depot stores in the United States. Blind Shaft boldly highlights the illegality of the mines and the gangsters who run them by paying off local Party officials, but that is how capitalism restarted in China in the first place; the communist economy led to starvation, so pragmatic local officials allowed small-scale free market enterprises so long as they would get their cut. The lyrics of the song "Long Live Socialism," as sung in the film, have even changed to celebrate capitalism as the "sexual climax of socialism," which is manifestly present in small-scale shopkeepers at the open markets around the town in the film. As the authorities have banned the film in China because of the implicit political and social commentary, the film's director Li Yang now lives in exile. The Political Film Society has thus nominated Blind Shaft for an award as best film of 2004. MH
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