"Blind Mountain" (Mang Shan) is an extremely powerful film written, directed and co-produced by Li Yang about the illegal sex slave trade in China. In Li's movie con men lure young city girls with promises of high-paying jobs selling herbal medicines to farmers in rural areas. In reality the gangs/con men often use force, rape, and drugs against their victims. They then sell them as wives to rural farmers because there is a shortage of women due to the one child policy/female infanticide.
The story of Bai Xuemei (the heroine of Blind Mountain) is a little different because she is college graduate who wants to pay back her family for her education. Most of the victims are working class girls or girls from other rural areas.
[See Jan Wong, Red China Blues (1996), pages 326-332 about the sex slavery trade. Jan Wong is Chinese-Canadian woman who went to China in the early seventies, worked on a collective farm and urban factory. She was one of the first foreign students since the cultural revolution to attend Beijing University (BeiDa). Another source of information Nicholas Kistof and Sheryl WuDunn's China Wakes (1994), pages 216-222. A photo on page 211 shows women holding cards with their price. Nicholas and Sheryl, reporters for the New York Times, received an award for their reporting on the Beijing massacre.]
Another very good source of information on "Blind Mountain" and other Chinese films is Wikipedia. The articles contain excellent sources of additonal information and links.
Critique: no music and poor sound editing.
I don't want to give away the ending..BUT it is a stunner!!! It is playing at the Laemmle theater downtown until Saturday. SEE IT!!!
.
