"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

Lovely, sentimental film about life transitions for a father (Ten Rujun) and his young adult son (Liu Ye),set against a background of almost achingly beautiful landscapes photographed in the mountains of Hunan Province in south central China.

The time is the present, and the father, though only in his early 40s, is no longer physically able to conduct his torturous postal route made on foot, carrying a huge mail pack deep into the mountains. He has arranged for his son to inherit his job.

A vital member of the operation is the family dog, a precocious German Shepard who refuses to go out on the route with the son: it's too radical a departure from custom. So the father must also make the son's inaugural trip with him, to get the dog to go along. It's a good thing, too. Because there is much for the young man to learn that the dog alone could not have taught him.

For example, there is a blind woman living on an isolated farm who gets letters from her son living in the city. Actually he only sends money, never a personal note. So the father has made up letters from him to "read" to her over the years. In a small village, everyone turns out and the son can see that his father is deeply revered by the villagers as an important state official and singular link to the larger world.

The father also has some lessons to learn from his son, about village life back home, and the wants and needs of his mother, for the father has truly remained a stranger there through the years. The screenplay was adapted from a short story with the delightful title: "That Postman, That Mountain, That Dog."

The film won the 1999 Chinese Golden Rooster (Jin Ji) awards for best film and best actor (Mr. Ten). It also has been highly popular in Japan. An English subtitled cut was only prepared in 2003 and its distribution in the U.S. began just in mid-autumn, 2004. A gorgeous film about life's passages. (In Mandarin). My rating: 8/10 (B+). (Seen on 03/25/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.

Several months after seeing this film, it still has an impact on me. I can visualise the scene where the son piggy-backs the father across the river, the scene where the son reads the letter to the old lady etc. So little is said in this film, but it is pregnant with meaning. It has been a long time since a film touched me so deeply.