Monday, May 10, 2010

POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAINS (Chinese) (1998)

A beautiful film about the journey of a retired postman father, his young son and a dog tracking mountain villages on foot and delivering mails to longing ones. It was the last one for father and first one for the son and a difficult and strenuous one in hilly rocky tracks of mountains covering distance of more than 150 km. During the course of journey both of them become more intimate and understand each other more closely shedding all their difference.

Its simple story and simple film, probably contains not more than one line to sum up all but its visuals which speaks volumes than words. The panoramic view of natural landscapes covering mountains, lush green hills, rivers and isolated villages make it rich cinematic experience. The pace of the film is too slow and demands patience for routine film lovers. The father is represented here as a strict disciplinarian, responsible and dedicated to his duty and passing the message to his young son. Looking it broader cultural perspective, it connotes older generation’s passing flame of values to new modern generation. The film has many sentimental scenes. Like one where the young postman is reading a letter to a blind old granny living alone. Another is one where son crosses the river lifting his father.

Another classic film making with a beautiful visual journey…

Ratings-8.5/10

2 comments:

Luv said...

i feel filmmakers are no more using visual storytelling as much as they used to, but whenever a film does that now - its almost always a film that is not to be missed.

HIREN DAVE said...

so true...thats why i keep watching world cinema along with hollywood.Along with this do watch THE CAVE OF YELLOW DOG...u will just love both of them.