Blind Mountain (Mang shan) (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Madman Propaganda
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	98:58 (Case: 95)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (53:16)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Li Yang
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Huang Lu Yang Youan He Yunle Zhang Yuling Jia Yingao Zhang Youping
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     China, 1990s. Bai Xuemai (Huang Lu) has just graduated from college but is without a job and her family owes money. She accepts an opportunity to go with two others to the northern Chinese mountains to collect medicine herbs for sale. On arrival, she is drugged and sold to the Huang farming family as a wife for their son Degui (Yang Youan). The practice of buying kidnapped women is prevalent in this isolated mountain village, so Bai’s cries for help and her protests are ignored by others in the village, and in fact condemned. On the wedding night, the marriage celebration occurs with Bai bound and gagged and in the days following when she resists she is beaten, raped and chained. Although other kidnapped wives in the village attempt to comfort Bai, she will not be reconciled with her fate; she makes a number of escape attempts, only to be caught and brought back to the village. She also attempts suicide, but is found and survives.

     As the season changes, she carries on a clandestine relationship with the only partially educated man in the village, her “husband’s” cousin Decheng (He Yunle) in hope that he will help her escape but they are discovered. Then with pregnancy and childbirth her hopes fade, and as a release Bai starts to teach the village children, becoming friendly with young boy Li Qingshan (Zhang Youping). When Li manages to smuggle a letter from Bai to her parents out of the village, Bai’s father and the police arrive to get her. But the climax is not what Bai, or the audience, is expecting.

     Blind Mountain or Mang shan may sound relentlessly depressing and harrowing, but the reality is anything but. Why this is starts with the wonderful central performance of Huang Lu as Bai; she is hurt, determined, and vulnerable, with a natural beauty. We believe in her and her fate. In fact all the performers are excellent and natural; there are no cardboard cut out evil villains here. The Huang family don’t want to mistreat Bai; they just want a wife for their son and a grandson for the family, and in fact given her numerous attempts to escape, not to mention Bai’s “infidelity", her physical mistreatment might have been far more brutal – in fact another kidnapped wife in the village is beaten so badly she can only walk with a limp.

     Another plus is the stunning, naturalistic look of the film. Blind Mountain is set in a bleak autumn and winter landscape brilliantly captured by cinematographer Jong Lin using, it appears, natural lighting. There are no “alive” colours on show; everything is in muted very natural browns and greens with the only vibrant colours the costumes at the festival or the occasional red flag or banner. Interiors are murky and dark. Hand held cameras are also used extensively; close up amid people. There are also long, slow pans of the rural countryside and mountains juxtaposed but the film is without flashy angles, cuts or pans that can distance the viewer from the on-screen action. There is also no music score as such, only an occasional voice singing a shepherd’s song or music within the film, such as through the village loudspeaker. The camera work, the natural acting, muted colours and lack of a soundtrack give a feeling that this is real life, real people, real events.

     In modern rural China, woman are still kidnapped and sold as brides. Blind Mountain is a beautiful, moving and haunting film from director Li Yang with a brave, mesmerising central performance from Huang Lu and a climax that will be hard to forget. Blind Mountain is, quite simply, stunning cinema.

Video

     Blind Mountain is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. The IMDb gives the original theatrical ratio at 1.66:1. As noted in the review, the film looks to have been shot using natural light which does effect the presentation of the film on DVD. Colours are very flat (certainly a deliberate choice) and on the whole the film lacks sharpness and can be quite indistinct. Shadow detail is particularly murky although blacks are fine and skin tones natural. I did not notice film grain but there are quite frequent small artefacts, such as at 79:08.

     The English subtitles are in a yellow font and contain only a couple of minor errors that are not distracting.

     The layer change at 53:16 created a slight pause on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The only audio is Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps that works very well. It is surround encoded and creates a very natural sound stage in keeping with the natural, realistic look of the film. Dialogue is always clear and the surrounds were utilised for weather including rain, footsteps crunching upon the snow, door openings and diverse rural sounds, such as pigs and goats. There was no sub woofer use but nor was any needed in a film without music or action sequences.

     There were no lip synchronisation issues.

     There is no music score.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Original Theatrical Trailer (1:44)

Madman Propaganda

     Trailers for other films from Madman. Included is Just Another Love Story (2:27), In the Electric Mist (1:47), Up the Yangtze (2:11) and Transsiberian (1:44).

     The Region 3 Hong Kong version has as audio choices Mandarin DTS 6.1 and Dolby Digital 6.1, is 16x9 enhanced but without extras. The film does have English subtitles. The Region 1 US version is not 16x9, no extras and the same audio as our version. While the audio tracks on the Region 3 give it an advantage, this is not a film that requires this and the sound on the Region 4 is more than adequate. Perhaps a draw between Region 3 and Region 4.

    Blind Mountain is a beautiful, haunting and harrowing story from director Li Yang. Blind Mountain has a brave, mesmerising central performance from Huang Lu and a climax that will be hard to forget. It is, quite simply, stunning cinema. The video presentation is not perfect but the audio is very good. There are minimal extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall