[Marxism] WSWS on "Blind Shaft"

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Coal miners in China

Mang jing (Blind Shaft) is the remarkable first feature film directed by Li 
Yang (born 1959). It concerns the fate of two coal miners who earn their 
living by staging accidents that kill fellow workers they have passed off 
as relatives and collecting the compensation due family members. Blind 
Shaft opens and closes with violent deaths, but the film devotes itself 
primarily to a depiction of the everyday brutality of life under the 
Chinese Stalinists? ?free-market? policies. The murders or attempted 
murders flow logically from an economic paradigm in which ?only money matters.?

In the opening sequences, the two are sitting with a third miner down a 
shaft. ?All the men in my village have left to look for work,? he says. 
They kill him and open negotiations with the boss, a self-important yuppie, 
who wants to cover up the death. The latter?s henchman suggests, ?Why 
bother? Why not just kill the two of them?? In the end, the mine owner 
agrees to pay 30,000 yuan ($3600) in compensation to the dead man?s 
?brother,? one of the two murderers. ?Pack your bags and burn the corpse! 
Get the f*** out of here!,? the boss screams.

The two go visit a brothel. In an extraordinary scene, they propose to sing 
an old favorite, ?Long live socialism!? The prostitutes tell them ?the 
words changed years ago.? They sing the revised version, ?The reactionaries 
were never overcome. They came back with their US dollars, liberating China.?

The pair next pick up a 16-year-old, desperate for a job, and explain they 
can find him work in a coal mine, but only if he pretends to be a nephew of 
one of them. He?s a youngster, straight from the country, who has never had 
a drink or slept with a girl. One of the two older men begins to soften, 
?It?s not right, he?s too young.? The other responds, ?You feel sorry for 
him. Who feels sorry for you?? They try a new mine, with a crude thug for a 
boss. ?What?s a few deaths?,? he asks rhetorically at one point.

The soft-hearted one tells his colleague, ?If we kill him [the youth], 
we?ll end his family line.? The pair take him to a brothel. Afterward, the 
boy feels remorse, ?I?ve shamed myself. My life?s over. I?ve turned into a 
bad man.? Violence prevails in the end. The final scene is a cremation, the 
final shot the chimney of the crematorium. A holocaust of sorts. Unofficial 
estimates put the total of dead in Chinese coal mine accidents last year at 
7,000 or more.

Mang jing is not the end-all and be-all of filmmaking, but it is a 
sharp-eyed, truthful work done with compassion. Where is the European, 
North American, Japanese or Australian equivalent?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/baff-m07.shtml

===
Interview with Li Yang

One of the more impressive contemporary works screened at this year?s 
festival was Blind Shaft, a first-time feature written and directed by 
34-year-old Chinese director Li Yang. The film has won awards at the 
Berlin, Buenos Aires and Hong Kong international film festivals.

Previously reviewed by the World Socialist Web Site (See: Buenos Aires 5th 
International Festival of Independent Cinema?The two paths), the film 
examines the lives of two itinerant coal miners in northern China. The men 
have been so brutalised by the all-pervasive poverty and conditions in the 
mining industry that they earn money by organising fatal accidents to kill 
individual workmates, whom they claim are relatives. The two men are paid 
compensation and hush money by the mine owners over the deaths. They move 
on to the next coal mine.

No film has so graphically exposed the dangerous and de-humanising 
character of coal mining in China, an industry that claims the lives of 
thousands each year in gas explosions, roof collapses and mine floods. 
According to official figures, over 3,300 miners were killed in the first 
six months of 2002. Unofficial estimates claim that up to 7,000 are killed 
per year in fatal accidents.

Not surprisingly, Yang?s film has been banned by the Beijing government 
whose policies are responsible for the horrendous conditions in Chinese 
mines. While Li Yang says he is ?not political?, Blind Shaft constitutes a 
powerful indictment of the Stalinist regime. He spoke with the WSWS in 
Sydney after a screening his film.

John Chan: First, let me say that I was very impressed by your film. There 
are so few movies from China and internationally that deal with the social 
conditions confronting ordinary people. Your film is based on Liu 
Qingbang?s novel Shen Mu. Why did you choose this book?

Li Yang: I wanted to make a film about China and read many novels and other 
material. I chose Liu Qingbang?s novel, though, because it moved me deeply. 
His stories about the lives of modern grassroots Chinese are very good. I?d 
returned to China after being away for more than a decade and had other 
feelings about the western world or what we called capitalism and how it 
compared to China?s developing market economy. I also had certain concerns 
about the high rate of economic growth and the situation facing ordinary 
people. Perhaps all these things shocked me.

JC: Could you explain more about the novel? Is it popular in China?

LY: The novel won the Laoshe Literature Prize in 2002, which is one of the 
highest literature awards in China for a medium-sized novel. Although a 
work of fiction it is based on a true story. Liu Qingbang has deep insights 
into life and is very familiar with the issues facing ordinary people. 
Precisely because he deals with real living figures, it moved me deeply.

JC: Your film has been banned, but why didn?t the government crack down on 
the novel?

LY: It is quite unusual in China. Certain aspects of Chinese politics are 
strange and many things don?t follow homogenous standards. It is defined as 
?One Country, Two Systems? but it really is ?one country with several 
systems?. Every department seems to have its own rules and it often happens 
that things that can be reported on television cannot be created as dramas, 
and some things that can be turned into dramas cannot be made into films. 
Music and painting are given more free expression.

I don?t actually understand how it works, but I can say that the Chinese 
Film Bureau is one of the most conservative of the artistic institutions. 
They probably heavily restrict films because they think movies can become a 
means of propaganda, instead of entertainment and artistic expression.

JC: Your film shows the dangerous situation facing coal miners. Were you 
shocked by these conditions?

LY: Yes, I was shocked. But the conditions shown in my movie are not bad 
compared to other mines. There are much worse ones than this.

The focus of my film, however, was not simply to show the brutal situation 
in which the miners live, but to express the struggle, conflicts and 
contradictions in their lives. I wanted to portray how human nature 
degenerates under the attraction of money, and the good side of humanity in 
this transitional period?how good confronts evil.

This is an internal process. As you saw in the film one of the miners 
didn?t want to kill the young boy but was trying to earn money for his own 
family. As his fellow workmate said: ?If you don?t kill him, your kids will 
be like him and have to work.? This was a difficult choice.

Another thing that shocked me was that the miners seemed to be comfortable 
with the conditions in which they worked. Perhaps they, like many Chinese, 
were optimistic and hoped that things would get better in the future. They 
weren?t insensitive to their own hardship, but without these jobs they had 
nothing. Their optimism about life is something I didn?t expect. So in the 
film you also see them enjoying life?joking in the shower, playing cards 
and drinking.

JC: Do you think the Chinese government banned your film because it 
revealed these harsh conditions?

LY: Yes, probably, but my film isn?t just about one theme. It deals with 
modern lives, the worship of money and several other issues. So I don?t 
know exactly why they targeted it specifically.

JC: At last night?s screening you said that the mine used in the film 
belonged to a friend.

LY: My friend?s friend. But I knew the owners well.

JC: Could you explain the conditions?

LY: There are many deadly small mines in China, but they are not all 
illegal, many of them have legal documents and procedures. Through the 
bribery of local officials, the mine owners can get official approval for 
their operations, even though the safety measures are far below standard. I 
wanted to show that there are many money-power deals and that?s why the 
mine owners are afraid to report any deadly accidents. If the accidents are 
brought to light then it means that it is not just one person?s responsibility.

JC: Where did you shoot your films?

LY: In Hebei, Shanxi and Henan [provinces].

JC: There is another element of the movie concerning prostitutes. Could you 
elaborate on this?

LY: This is part of real life for these people. The two miners kill in 
order to earn money and use some of this for enjoyment. Their peasant 
conception of enjoyment, however, is somewhat limited and they are 
satisfied with the cheap prostitutes in the local towns. I didn?t want to 
exaggerate anything, it was simply part of their lives.

JC: You include one scene showing the prostitutes at the post office 
sending money back home.

LY: That?s right. These are ordinary people trying to earn a living and 
support their families.

JC: At the question and answer session after the screening last night 
someone suggested that your story was fake?

LY: This comment is not unusual. I lived outside China for many years and 
understand the psychology of overseas Chinese who have been away for too 
long and are not familiar with contemporary conditions. They might also 
think that the film was made to blacken China?s image. The country is 
transforming but their ideas remain fixed to the time when they left.

I?ve returned to China several times over the years and my knowledge is 
closer to reality. I can say that all the details and pictures in my movie 
are fully real and that you can find this sort of situation everywhere in 
China.

JC: There is a scene in the movie where the two miners go to a karaoke bar 
and at one point sing a song, ?Long Live Socialism? with two prostitutes. 
Could you comment on this?

LY: The song has no particular significance, it simply represents another 
aspect of life for these miners. They were given a communist education and 
sang this song because it was the only one they knew. They couldn?t sing 
Deng Lijun [Taiwanese pop singer in 1970s and 80s]. The script depended not 
on my will, but on the need to accurately represent the thinking and 
behavior of these characters.

JC: What are conditions like for filmmakers in China?

LY: China?s market reform has changed the [state-owned] studios and they no 
longer function as before. In the past, films could only be made by these 
studios. Today any company can make movies. So the market system has made 
it more open and the studios have lost their dictatorial authority.

This is a good thing. But in China there are political as well as economic 
pressures. Filmmakers have to earn money while at the same time they cannot 
make anything that will irritate the government?otherwise they face heavy 
fines. These conditions mean that Chinese filmmakers must be very 
self-disciplined.

JC: In the 1980s Zhang Yimao and other Fifth Generation filmmakers made 
movies that conflicted with the government. Their latest films seem more 
conservative. Could you comment on this?

LY: They must have their own reasons for these films and their current 
attitudes. It was normal that the Fifth Generation filmmakers, and even 
some commercial movies, came into conflict with the government at that 
time. Every artist develops their own individual style and while I have my 
own methods I hope there will be many filmmaking styles develop in China, 
not just the sort of movie I have made. If this occurs, there will be a 
wide market for films.

JC: What impact will the government ban of Blind Shaft have on your career? 
Did you realise what would happen before you began?

LY: Yes, I?d thought about it. I could have made some kind of compromise 
and made a film within the system, or made something that only half 
satisfied my artistic conscience. At this moment, however, I believe that 
what I did is correct. I didn?t curse or shame this or that regime or 
political party but simply revealed some aspects of real life. Time and 
history will test out this film.

Although the film has been banned, the situation is better than I expected. 
At least I?m still allowed to return to China occasionally, my life hasn?t 
been physically threatened and, at least for now, I?m free from jail. Maybe 
this is an expression of the Chinese government?s openness and 
enlightenment. The situation is new to me, but I hope that it becomes more 
open and allows more freedom. Of course, it can?t be achieved in one day in 
such a vast country, so we will have to wait patiently.

JC: I read that you were away from China for 14 years. Did you leave after 
the Tienanmen Square protests in 1989? What do you think about these events?

LY: I left China in 1987 and only learnt about the June 4th protests 
through the foreign media. I?ve made no special study about these events, 
but only heard one-sided reports or various stories from some people, and 
still have no real idea of what took place. The development of this sort of 
student movement was inevitable and has pushed forward some policy changes.

JC: How did this impact on filmmakers?

LY: I don?t think there was any direct impact on filmmakers but it did 
provide a thinking space on everything. This was the good side of it I 
think. That?s my basic approach.

JC: But the Chinese government imposed even greater restrictions on freedom 
of expression in response to the 1989 protests.

LY: I don?t know about this because I?m not involved in politics. Whether 
the government becomes more liberal or more authoritarian I?m not sure. 
From my personal point of view, I don?t feel that it has become more 
authoritarian. On the contrary, I believe they thought through these things 
and have learnt how to handle this type of event in a better manner.

So I don?t think there is less freedom. There are many jokes circulating 
around the Internet about some Chinese government leaders, and I talked 
about politics when I was in China and no one was arrested. At least my 
life wasn?t threatened when I made this film. Of course, I knew that they 
were going to trouble me, but it isn?t like the past. If you had made a 
documentary film about China at that time you would have been accused of 
being a spy and expelled from the country. From my personal point of view, 
there seems to be far greater freedom.

JC: I can?t agree with you on this. Since you first left China, a huge 
social gap has developed between the rich and poor. Did you notice this and 
do you have any comment?

LY: This isn?t just a Chinese problem but is common wherever there is rapid 
economic development, such as in Taiwan, Germany and the US. These issues 
were shown in the American films of the 1940s. In fact, it is a common 
problem of all humanity. Man?s desire for money and other attractions is 
boundless and this is how he loses his humanity.

My film is set in China but the story could have occurred in Germany, the 
US or in Australia. I made it in China simply because I am Chinese and 
familiar with the country. The basic theme is universal. It was equally 
brutal in the early days of Australia when the Aborigines were expelled to 
remote areas. I think there was a recent film on this chapter of history. 
So I think it is a common issue of humanity. Man must face this reality and 
discover how to eliminate these kinds of painful experiences.

JC: One last question. What?s your next project?

LY: I have many ideas but filmmaking is expensive work and so it depends on 
what my investors favour. Up to now I haven?t decided.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/sff2-j18.shtml


Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org 


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