Blind Mountain (Yang Li, 2007): China

I was never too excited about seeing Blind Mountain; I met an odd couple of people early on in the week who suggest I see Blind Mountain and a few other films that I had seen, but hated terribly. I don’t know why I changed my mind, but I finally made it to an afternoon showing at the Metro 4. The Film centers around a recent college graduate out of China being sold as a bride, against her own will to a village in the middle of the mountains. The villagers who buy her live by very barbaric standards and true to their role, none of the villagers in the film are actors. Aside from the teacher and the main character, the cast is authentic. Everything seen in the film is real to the small village’s standards and illegal to China’s customs, giving the film a very real feel.

What I liked:
The imagery in Blind Mountain is quite incredible. Not the most extraordinary cinematography I’ve seen, but what the cinematragrapher, Jong Lin, had to work with made just about every shot worth looking at. Most of the film was shot somewhere in the mountains of China, where exactly I could not tell, but it is a very spectacular place to see on film. The plot is also a strong point of the film, it promotes a very strong message to the viewer about how many young girls are taken from their normal lives under a false pretense to be held against their will and sold as a bride to the highest paying family of barbaric villagers. The contrast between the educated main character, Bai Xuemei (Lu Huang) and her new husband is quite astounding to see (and laugh at). The film has many well played characters that really add to the story and provide progression to the overall experience. The ending is sort of indefinite. I know not a lot of people are always happy when a film ends with not every question fully answered, but I love it. Especially the way director Yang Li ends his film in this case.

What I didn’t like:
I thought the film was a little bit long for what it was, I found myself sort of bored in the beginning (but not so much that I had to check what time it was or go to the bathroom). Not much else struck me as flawed however, so that’s a good thing. The film sent a strong message to help prevent women from being sold to odd Chinese villages but I don’t think enough empathize was put on a the year the film is set in. When the story is set in the near by city, people seem to be holding cell phones and somewhat modern vehicles, but how modern we cannot tell. If the issue at hand is old, has it been resolved now? I would have had a few questions at a Q + A with the cast and crew.

Overall:
Blind Mountain deserves more attention than it received., I don’t think I heard enough people talking about the film. The ending is the best part and I did hear the crowd gasp a few times in the middle at a select scenes that I won’t mention in this review… Blind Mountain is a good, very worth watching. I would recommend it to any movie goer who appreciates a slower, deeper meaning in their story. I would rate it at a 7 out of 10.

– Keith.