Mang shan

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020972/
A.k.a. Blind mountain
In a rural small village somewhere in China a young, newly graduated girl, are going by a bus along a beautiful mountain road. She is looking for work and a young man says he is gonna help her. Bai Xuemei (Lu Huang) happy and a bit to naive accept his offer, now she can find a job. What she will find is far more terrifying then she ever could have dreamed of, she is drugged and kidnapped by a man in a small
village in northern China where she will be used and serve as his bride, she will also be used sexually.

By the time Bai Xuemei gets to the mountain village, she instantly tries to run away, some men drag her inside a house and tie her up by the bed, soon her new husband enters the room…
The story takes place in early 1990´s China and is NOT a violent movie
by any standard, so if you are looking for a violent movie do not
bather with Mang shan. Even though, Bai Xuemei get beaten sometimes during the movie, it´s not a bloody or disgusting movie with explicit imagery. On the cuntrouary it is actually a beautiful movie (cinemathograpic wise that is), really well acted. The villagers are no real acters, infact they are real villagers living and working as portrayed in the movie, they have talent and it makes this a documentary gritty feel to it. In fact, Lu Huang is the only proper schooled actor in the movie.

Bai Xumei













The chines government laid their filthy hands (filthy as in censorship) on this movie and cut out a lot - so the story goes anyway. So an uncut version of this may never see the light of day (something tells me the scenes that was cut out will never be replaced or discovered).
Mang shan critisizes the whole sexslave/human trafficking scenario and knowing that the government actually have cut this movie (what did they actually cut out? After all they left the rapescenes intact(?) ..)

Bai Xumei tied up













Mang shan a.k.a. Blind mountain is a drama and is told and acted in a
slow phase wich at times can make it hard to watch, but it�s well worth
the time to follow her tragic time as one of many traffic victims and
her attempts to freedom (yes she escapes sometimes).
I did however during the movie come to think about the Stockholm
syndrome* (see link below) and you do feel for Bai Xuemei as long as
the movie goes on.

The first rape













Bai Xumei doesn´t react after a while to how the men threats her. It is painfully, in a sad classic chinese dramatic way portraid in a specific scene, that her will has gone and she has in some way accepted her faith.













Yang Li has made a powerful, touching, a bit provocing and sad movie. This is only his debut; In other words keep an eye on this guy. Keep also an eye on Lu Huang.
If you haven´t seen this I highly recomend Mang shan and if you by some odd reson have made it through this porly written review (believe me, the movie is much better then I can describe) you copy and paste this link and order the DVD. You will Not be dissapointed, well maybe you will - but that dissapointment will not be on the movie, but on the way some men and some laws actually support things like this. As sad this movie is, it is uplifting (Finally the cinamatic world have the guts to do movies about this topic) and that is really important.

http://www.dvdasian.com/_e/China/product/27134/Blind_Mountain_aka_Mang_Shan_DVD_.htm


Official trailer
http://se.youtube.com/watch?v=hESnR20g0ow

* About the Stockholm syndrome
http://ask.yahoo.com/20030324.html

Mang shan won the FACE awards in Istanbul for it´s Human rights issues.
Read more here
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1277543&Site=DC&BackColorInternet=F5CA75&BackColorIntranet=F5CA75&BackColorLogged=A9BACE