The Man-Eating Pit

In a northern mining district in the late 1980s, eleven-year-old Tie Jun dies in the “Man-Eating Pit” while trying to catch “delicious pond fish.” His mouth is stuffed with brand-new mining-lamp batteries from a sand-digging crew that vanished ten years ago, and an unbreakable safety rope is wrapped around his wrist. His father, safety officer Tie Jianguo, breaks the “safety code” to investigate the truth. Guilt-ridden Pang Wa suffers frequent sleepwalking fits and mutters in his sleep, while retired miner Zhao Laoshuan secretly knows what happened in the accident ten years ago. As the investigation deepens, strange events pile up: mine maps are altered, records go missing, scratching sounds come from underground, and black water flows from faucets. The secret of the abandoned mine beneath the “Man-Eating Pit” gradually emerges: it is a gathering place for the wronged souls of a covered-up mining disaster, who use “fish” as bait to lure the living. The resentments of industrial-era ghosts intertwine with supernatural forces. Tie Jianguo joins forces with the miners to explore the pond, confronting swollen, bloated spirits and the mine's “malice.” In the end, as he uncovers the grim history of the industrial dead, he faces an outcome that will determine the fate of the mining district.