Blind Mountain

This is an extremely compelling and thought provoking film.

It portrays the fate of a young woman who accepts a job offer in the countryside and finds she has been sold as a bride to a family in a remote village in modern day China.

It is extremely realistic, my uninformed guess is that there were very few professional actors involved. All the characters seemed completely true to life.

Village life in modern China is very accurately portrayed. The Chinese government is vigorously trying to stop the old cultural practice of young women being sold as brides but traditions sometimes die hard; especially in areas remote from centers of authority.

Most interestingly the film revealed how Chinese people relate to authority. The villagers' reactions to visits from party officials and the police were right on the mark.

I watched this with a woman who grew up in in a small village and she confirmed its unerring accuracy.

There are many wonderful improvements in the life of most Chinese people. This film doesn't negate them; but shines a light on one facet that is heartbreaking in its injustice.

Make sure you catch this classic.

BLIND MOUNTAIN (dir. Yang Li) Although set in China during the early 1990's, this drama seems completely out of sync with the modern world. A college educated young woman is lured to Northern China with the promise of a well paying job, but she actually has been sold to a village family to become the wife of their eldest son. The villagers would have let her go if she paid back the $7,000 in dowry money that they paid for her, but she has no identification or money, and they are convinced she is only trying to renege on the deal. The authorities were aware of her plight, yet took the side of the villagers. Apparently this is not an isolated incident, and the film implies that there are many such rural Chinese women in the same predicament. Although the subject matter is harrowing, the mountainous terrain where the film was shot is undeniably beautiful. Very much worth a look.

And therefore miss some of the nuances, but its a watchable film if you like asian tragedy. its about trading women , whos numbers have decreased after the introduction of the one child per family politics.a boy is much more worth than a girl, and that makes young women, even high educated ones real easy targets to lure and then sell into the rural countryside. it happens all over the planet, but usually its rural girls being sold into the cities .

the film has got some really primitive technical qualities, and the acting are quite stiff at times, but the mains do deliver a credible job to tell this story, though there are some holes in the timeline, and the end is very abrupt. it would have been interesting with a sequel or continuious film made ...... you know when this happens, but the timeline are narrowly told, and where they are would have helped a lot. china is a vast country with hundreds of ''tribes'' and the language,rites and traditions varies a lot. i may say that this is not a hollywood production, neither a norwegian or indiish. its made out of sheer will and poverty, and shall get acknowledgement from me.its recommended

I was able to see this movie at the Portland International Film Festival. I'm a huge fan of Asian cinema, particularly Japanese and Korean films. Before this, I had seen very little from the Chinese, and i must say this is a great introduction to China's promising film-making talent. Not one scene of this movie bored me, as i thought it certainly would. The majority of the movie follows the main characters imprisonment in the isolated village, and her numerous attempts to escape until the final, abrupt yet amazing, ending. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who enjoys great cinema, and i personally can't wait until i get my hands on this movie. Ironically, i saw this with my girlfriend on valentine's day. Talk about silly.

Blind Mountain is an excellent film about a college girl being duped into going into a mountain village and left there "sold" as a bride and her attempts to escape and get back to her family. The plot sounds trite but Yang Li's excellent direction and the crisp editing along with superb performances in the main roles, make this into a twisting horror story and the viewer knows not, where the plot is going.

Apart from the main role of Bai and the teacher, all other actors were actual mountain village people which is startling in the uncompromising look at their culture and the hard lives ingrained into their faces, there are also some real, now rescued, "brides" playing themselves in the film.

Although the film as a good social point to make, it's not preaching or forcing the issues on you but rather asking you to examine the situation. To the villagers, this is just life and it's always been this way, to observers they seem inhumane. Although the film obviously brings up the issue of the one child policy, these villages and bride trafficking have been going one since long before that policy was put into affect and still does in many parts of the world, not just China.

Yang Li was in the audience and took questions at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It was annoying to see the Q&A get hijacked a little by feminists wanting to make a point and answering their own questions but other than that the director was frank and forthcoming about his film.

Excellent. Recommended.