Mang shan 2007

Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune: [Director] Li was a documentarian before he switched to feature films with the highly praised 2003 feature Blind Shaft, and it shows in his raw style. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: For the second film in a row, [director] Li excoriates the values of an increasingly market-driven China, where people treat their fellows as products to be exploited, and scramble to get an edge on their 'competitors.' Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: This is a resolutely tough-minded, beautifully crafted film so compelling as to make bearable watching the nearly unbearable. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: The heat of empathetic outrage that Li generates from the audience is enough to make the theater combust. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Even trimmed, the film is a stinging and frightening indictment of mainland China. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a harsh portrait of a brutal segment of society, only relieved by an occasional handsome landscape shot (filmed in the Shaanxi province) that makes Bai's plight all the more compelling. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Whether one responds or not to the pic's (certainly valid) theme... pic has a deadening lack of dramatic development and a plethora of thinly drawn characters. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Easily fits the paradigm parodied by Funny Games. The difference: This movie actually has a political point. Read more