Our eighteen-year-old protagonist has just failed the annual college entrance exam (yes it is highly competitive. For rural youth often one in a hundred shot). He decides to take over his retiring father's country mailman route for one good reason: in his world, civil servants are more respected and enjoy benefits and pensions that ordinary farmers can't.
The father and his fiercely loyal dog decide to accompany the young man on his first journey to show him the ropes.
Neither technology nor infrastructure has reached the hinterland of Hunan. Postman's job is as tough as it was back in Song Dynasty! A round trip takes days to complete on foot and on foot only, not to mention all the wading, swimming, climbing along the way and the unbearable solitude for hours on end. Like most men of his generation, the father is ill at ease bonding with his own offspring. So taciturn was the old man that at times he seems to have been carved out of wood. Yet all the life lessons, outdoors, courtship, dreams and regrets were quietly meted out along the trip.
The residents served by the route are as lovely as any. It is refreshing to see amidst China's breakneck economic development, such innocence still exists.
Mostly shot on location in the western part of Hunan province. (Description of Chinese geography should never be so naked by the way. Almost all locales have aliases and nicknames to be properly paired depending on the context. Western part of Hunan for example, would be called 湘西.)
One can practically smell cured meats and spiced air right off the screen. Sounds of singing crickets and images of verdant mountains linger days after you watch the movie. There's not one unnecessary scene.
Excellent acting chops displayed by both actors. Making his screen debut while still a student at the prestigious Central Academy of Dramatic Arts (中央戏剧学院) and incidentally, a classmate of Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (卧虎藏龙) fame, Liu Ye (刘烨) has since established himself as one of the most versatile leading men of his generation. Teng Rujun (滕汝骏), Liu's much less-fortunate, low-key alumnus whose early career was sidelined by the cultural revolution, played the role of the father and won the best supporting actor award.
Chinese subtitles. Enjoy the movie
Neither technology nor infrastructure has reached the hinterland of Hunan. Postman's job is as tough as it was back in Song Dynasty! A round trip takes days to complete on foot and on foot only, not to mention all the wading, swimming, climbing along the way and the unbearable solitude for hours on end. Like most men of his generation, the father is ill at ease bonding with his own offspring. So taciturn was the old man that at times he seems to have been carved out of wood. Yet all the life lessons, outdoors, courtship, dreams and regrets were quietly meted out along the trip.
The residents served by the route are as lovely as any. It is refreshing to see amidst China's breakneck economic development, such innocence still exists.
Mostly shot on location in the western part of Hunan province. (Description of Chinese geography should never be so naked by the way. Almost all locales have aliases and nicknames to be properly paired depending on the context. Western part of Hunan for example, would be called 湘西.)
One can practically smell cured meats and spiced air right off the screen. Sounds of singing crickets and images of verdant mountains linger days after you watch the movie. There's not one unnecessary scene.
Excellent acting chops displayed by both actors. Making his screen debut while still a student at the prestigious Central Academy of Dramatic Arts (中央戏剧学院) and incidentally, a classmate of Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (卧虎藏龙) fame, Liu Ye (刘烨) has since established himself as one of the most versatile leading men of his generation. Teng Rujun (滕汝骏), Liu's much less-fortunate, low-key alumnus whose early career was sidelined by the cultural revolution, played the role of the father and won the best supporting actor award.
Chinese subtitles. Enjoy the movie
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