" Wang Bing continues to probe the devastating consequences of this little-aired historical chapter in his first narrative feature, "The Ditch." Though a brisk jaunt at 112 minutes compared with Wang's three-hour "Fengming" and nine-hour "West of the Tracks," this powerful realist treatment offers a brutally prolonged immersion in the labor camps where numerous so-called dissidents were sent in the late 1950s. "
— Justin Chang de Variety