"Postmen in the Mountains" is set in a rural part of Hunan province, China, during the early 1980s, the period when the modernisers with in the Chinese Communist Party, led by Teng Hsaio-ping, were starting to break down the strict Maoist orthodoxy which had prevailed ever since the 1949 revolution. This remote mountain area, however, does not appear to have undergone much modernisation of any kind, and life still continues as it has done for decades, perhaps even centuries.
The two main characters are the local postman and his son. (We never learn their names). Although the father is only in his forties, he is being forced to retire from his job because of arthritis in his knee; the job is a physically demanding one which requires him to walk through the mountains on journeys lasting several days. The young man is taking over his father's position and on his first journey as postman the father accompanies him, together with the family's faithful dog, to show him the route. (The dog is given greater prominence in the original Chinese title, "Nashan naren nagou", or "Those Mountains, Those Men, That Dog").
During the course of their journey, the young man learns about more than the route he needs to follow or the demands of his new job. He also gets to know the villagers who live along the way, many of whom have become close friends of his father. In one village the two are invited to attend a wedding celebration among the Dong people, a local ethnic minority who do not belong to the majority Han Chinese community and speak a different language. Most importantly, the son gets to know his father better; the two were not close during the boy's childhood, as the demands of his job meant that the father was away from home for long periods of time.
"Postmen in the Mountains" is a strongly pictorial film, by which I mean that the emphasis is placed as much upon the visual elements as upon dialogue and physical action. It is shot using longer takes than would be normal today in American or European films; as with many Chinese or Far Eastern films every shot seems to be carefully composed like a painting. There are certainly some Western films that also have this quality- "Far from Heaven" and "Girl with a Pearl Earring" are two recent examples- but it seems to be more common in Asian ones. The photography of the mountain scenery is particularly striking.
I caught this film recently when it was shown as part of a cultural festival to mark Chinese New Year in Greenwich, a district of London with a large Chinese community. It was my first introduction to the films of Huo Jianqi, a director with whom I was not previously familiar, although I knew the work of his older contemporaries Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. (Zhang's films in particular are also notable for their pictorial qualities- "Raise the Red Lantern" and "House of Flying Daggers" are good examples). Huo is perhaps less well-known in the West than Chen and Zhang, but on the basis of this film he is an excellent director and brings out two very good performances from his leading actors Ten Rujun and Liu Ye. "Postmen in the Mountains" may be too slow paced for some Westerners used to action-packed blockbusters, but I found it a beautiful, wise and serene film about traditional Chinese life and a moving father-son relationship. 8/10
The two main characters are the local postman and his son. (We never learn their names). Although the father is only in his forties, he is being forced to retire from his job because of arthritis in his knee; the job is a physically demanding one which requires him to walk through the mountains on journeys lasting several days. The young man is taking over his father's position and on his first journey as postman the father accompanies him, together with the family's faithful dog, to show him the route. (The dog is given greater prominence in the original Chinese title, "Nashan naren nagou", or "Those Mountains, Those Men, That Dog").
During the course of their journey, the young man learns about more than the route he needs to follow or the demands of his new job. He also gets to know the villagers who live along the way, many of whom have become close friends of his father. In one village the two are invited to attend a wedding celebration among the Dong people, a local ethnic minority who do not belong to the majority Han Chinese community and speak a different language. Most importantly, the son gets to know his father better; the two were not close during the boy's childhood, as the demands of his job meant that the father was away from home for long periods of time.
"Postmen in the Mountains" is a strongly pictorial film, by which I mean that the emphasis is placed as much upon the visual elements as upon dialogue and physical action. It is shot using longer takes than would be normal today in American or European films; as with many Chinese or Far Eastern films every shot seems to be carefully composed like a painting. There are certainly some Western films that also have this quality- "Far from Heaven" and "Girl with a Pearl Earring" are two recent examples- but it seems to be more common in Asian ones. The photography of the mountain scenery is particularly striking.
I caught this film recently when it was shown as part of a cultural festival to mark Chinese New Year in Greenwich, a district of London with a large Chinese community. It was my first introduction to the films of Huo Jianqi, a director with whom I was not previously familiar, although I knew the work of his older contemporaries Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. (Zhang's films in particular are also notable for their pictorial qualities- "Raise the Red Lantern" and "House of Flying Daggers" are good examples). Huo is perhaps less well-known in the West than Chen and Zhang, but on the basis of this film he is an excellent director and brings out two very good performances from his leading actors Ten Rujun and Liu Ye. "Postmen in the Mountains" may be too slow paced for some Westerners used to action-packed blockbusters, but I found it a beautiful, wise and serene film about traditional Chinese life and a moving father-son relationship. 8/10