Cannes. Blind Mountain.

"Li Yang demonstrates once again that he is a master of cinematic tension with his second feature, Blind Mountain," writes Screen Daily's Lee Marshall. "Based on the widespread practice of bride trafficking in rural China, this harrowing but limpidly shot story of the abduction and sale of a young college student lacks the rich, character-driven plotting of Li's impressive debut, Blind Shaft.... But it is does provide a textbook lesson in audience manipulation, racking up our identification with the abused heroine and throwing us just enough scraps of hope, at just the right moments, to keep us guessing right up to the deliciously abrupt ending, which brought a round of cathartic applause from the press corps at the film's first Un Certain Regard screening."

Updated through 5/25.

"Even though Chinese authorities forced the director to make many cuts before it could be shown in Cannes, the movie retains enormous political impact as well as being a moving drama," writes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter.

"Whether one responds or not to the pic's (certainly valid) theme - story is set in the early 90s but could equally take place nowadays in many far-flung areas of China - pic has a deadening lack of dramatic development and a plethora of thinly drawn characters," writes Variety's Derek Elley. "Most of the action, and the story's potentially interesting developments, take place during the final reel, which then abruptly ends with a facile, grandstanding finish just when things are getting interesting."

Update, 5/22: "It's an affecting tale, related with a solid if slightly plodding inevitability (French critic Michel Ciment even likened it to DW Griffith's Orphans of the Storm!) and a few too many implausibilities," writes Time Out's Geoff Andrew. "But the film looks good, and is blessed with a very fine lead turn from Lu Huang, who brings considerable force, feistiness and determination to the student, winning our sympathies without ever once trying to make the character unduly likeable. And that's why the ending - sudden, surprising, violent - is such a winner; at every screening in Cannes it's had audiences whooping enthusiastically."

Update, 5/25: "Director Li Yang says the Chinese censors cut his film in more than 20 places, but what's left is still strong meat for a movie from the People's Republic," write Richard and Mary Corliss for Time.

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Cannes @ 60. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at May 21, 2007 3:28 PM