Postmen in the Mountains (English Subtitle, DVD9)

Title: Postmen in the Mountains (English Subtitle, DVD9)

Director: Huo Jianqi

Actor: Teng Rujun; Liu Ye

Language: Chinese-Japanese

Subtitles: English-Chinese-Japanese

Region: Region 6

Others: 90 Minutes; DVD9; Color; Widescreen

Please Noted: Postmen in the Mountains was set in Suining, a remote county in southwest Hunan Province. Suining County is the hometown of CNEMAY’s co-founder, so this movie will be sold at the lowest price here (the normal price is $16.99), and with free international shipping and with well wrapped box. The movie is region 6, please make sure that you can play region 6 DVD.

Description: (By Joseph Haschka: Glendale, CA USA)

A Chinese postman (Teng Rujun) has been walking his rural route for decades, accompanied only by his faithful German shepherd, Lao're (himself), whose barking announces their arrival in the villages and, presumably, noses out the dodgy spots in the trail. Now in his forties, the postman's legs are giving out, partly because of the frigid rivers he must ford on his appointed rounds. Cognizant of the great trust and responsibility of his duties, he prevails on the local Communist Party Secretary to assign the mail route to his own teenage son (Liu Ye).

As POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAINS begins, the son is about to depart with the mail on his first traverse of the 3-day, 75-mile delivery hike into the mountains aided by a map hand-drawn by Ol' Dad. Lao're, however, knowing on which side his doggy treat is buttered, declines to lope along. So, the just-retired postman decides to trudge the route one last time to show his boy the ropes and prevail upon Lao're to accept a new master.

POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAIN is an extremely gentle, almost somnolent, film about the transfer of wisdom, knowledge, and a sense of responsibility from one generation to the next. The film has no special FX, crime, violence, sex, chases, surprise ending, or any of the usual Big Screen gimmicks to draw in the sweaty masses. Only gorgeous rural scenery and a father and son, who are virtual strangers, getting to know and appreciate one another for the first time in their lives.

POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAINS is made even more beautiful by several silent, flashback vignettes. As the father observes his son dancing with a lovely mountain girl (Chen Hao) at one of their evening stops, he remembers the first time he met his wife, also a hill dweller. As the younger man carries his father across a swift river, the older man tearfully recalls the time he bore his son on his own back through their home village's marketplace. And as this, his last journey, approaches its end, the father envisions homecomings of times past when he joyfully ran to meet his young wife, their growing son at her side. For his own part, the teenager mainly remembers the long times his father was away, and the fearful anticipation of the return of the man he barely knew while growing up. This is poignant stuff.