Blind Shaft

Partially shot on the sly in the depths of real Chinese coal mines, where primitive equipment is the norm, safety regulations are flouted, and accidents are covered up, this unvarnished, understated cinema vérité chiller follows two amoral day-labor drifters who stage accidents to kill fellow miners, then pass themselves off as relatives of the deceased to collect large sums of hush money from crooked management. The contrast of their palsy-walsy manner and their casual brutality begets plenty of tension when, after a post-murder weekend of hotel rooms, hookers, and wiring cash home to their families, they recruit a shy, hapless 16-year-old as their next victim--a move which gives one partner pause, threatening to unravel their already mistrustful criminal enterprise. Directed by former documentarian Li Yang (who has subsequently been banned from filmmaking by the Chinese government) with a bleak, unblinking frankness regarding both crime and Chinese lower-caste life, Blind Shaft is especially unnerving because its lead performances are so unaffected, matter-of-fact, and cliché-proof that these felons could be anybody hard-up enough to fall down a slippery slope of questionable morals. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)