Nasty, harsh, and completely uncompromising, Blind Shaft puts the 'sin' into Chinese cinema. Banned in its country of origin because of its startling nihilism, censor-baiting brothel scenes and savage critique of China's economic miracle, Li Yang's debut is quite a departure from most Chinese movies.

In the rural provinces of contemporary China, two unscrupulous mine workers, Song (Li Yixiang) and Tang (Wang Shuangbao), have found the perfect way to boost their wages. Picking up a naïve young lad in a local village, the pair travel to the nearest mine and sign up as workers, claiming that the boy is one of their relatives.

Once in the security of the tunnels, they put a pickaxe through his head, fake a cave-in and go topside to collect compensation for his death. Since the mine owners live in fear of being investigated by the corrupt and bureaucratic state authorities, they're only too eager to pay out.

"SAVAGELY FUNNY"

A brutal film, Blind Shaft is also savagely funny, with coal-black humour coating the film's acerbic attack on the vagaries of capitalism. Pulling no punches in its vision of a world in which everything is for sale - from ID cards to human lives - Yang mercilessly exposes the realities of life under communism with a dark sense of comic absurdity.

"China has a shortage of everything except people," remarks Song, in one of the pair's attempts to justify their actions. Salving their consciences with hard currency, while endlessly bickering with one another and hanging around in brothels singing karaoke (the lyrics of one communist anthem are changed so the US dollar replaces Chairman Mao as saviour), there's something curiously endearing about these two cold-blooded murderers. You just wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley. Or mine shaft.

In Mandarin with English subtitles.