The citizens of a small mining town in Western China are very poor. Most of them walk or ride bikes on empty streets. Not a pretty place, it shows the stains and strains of life with factories and the nasty business of extracting things from deep down in the earth. In his first feature film, Zhang Chi focuses on a family of three living in a cramped apartment. In three segments, he shares their stories.
The first part focuses on the pretty daughter who works at the mine and has a dutiful and shy boyfriend who takes her home from work on his bicycle. He purchases her a gift of shoes but she rejects them with a comment that it is bad luck to give a woman shoes for she may use them to walk out on you. At the mine, she is accused of having sex with a manager who promoted her. The workers turn against her and she leaves town for Beijing to marry an older man.
In the second story, her young brother is a dreamer who wants to be a pop singer. He drops out of school and winds up in prison for a short stretch of time for helping out a friend who is a thief. After his release, he sadly goes to work in the mine, something he vowed he would never do.
The final segment revolves around the father who retires after years of working in the mine. He is embarrassed when his son and daughter throw him a birthday party to celebrate his 60th birthday. The old man has his own plans for the future: a trip to locate his wife who walked out on him 20 years ago.
All three stories deal with the important role of yearning in our lives. It animates the daughter to set out for a new life in Beijing, it carries the son through a series of epiphanies about his limitations, and it turns out to be a strong energy force in the father who cannot forget the woman he first loved. The Shaft is about ordinary lives fueled by desire.
Screened at the New Directors/New Films Festival in New York City, April, 2009.
