Adapted from Peng Jianming's novel of the same name, directed by Huo Jianqi and starring Teng Rujun, Liu Ye and Chen Hao, the film tells the story of the father of a retiring township postman who takes his son on that postal route, and gradually eliminates the gap between father and son. The main line of the story is very straightforward, and the expression is also very clear, but the simplicity is complex, the subtle is known, and the small is big. The father, who was a postman in the mountains, retired, and the son took over the job for his father, and on the first mission, the father took his son through the tour to familiarize himself with the situation. The mountain road is difficult, and in addition to explaining the work, the father also saw his former self from his son and looked back on his postal life. The missed communication with the family in the past makes the father and son familiar and strange, along the way, the two strive to get closer to each other and understand each other, and the father and son have completed the spiritual inheritance on this road, which also means the alternation of life. The director uses soothing shots, exquisite storylines and meaningful voices to slowly present the themes of ordinary love, responsibility and inheritance of spirit to the viewer, making it meaningful.
The film as a whole does not have too many plots, as the father of the postman in the mountains retires, accompanies his son as his successor to walk the postal route again, and at the end of the film, in the sight of the father's eyes, the son embarks on a journey to deliver letters alone. In the beautiful scenery and melodious music of the mountains of western Hunan Province, the theme of life inheritance is expressed, and an almost idealistic nostalgia for nature and traditional way of life. Outside the mountain, it is traditional and modern, and the letter messenger is the only connection outside the mountain, just like the semiconductor, but the attitude conveyed by the film is that the letter messenger can be retained, and the son inherits the father's wish, this kind of writing can not but be said to be without idealistic colors. The moment the son grows up is to cross the river on his father's back, when the young postman can cross the most difficult waterway alone, the father leaves tears of relief on the back of the young son, as if the intergenerational alternation of the new and old messengers is finally completed at this moment.
From the perspective of audiovisual language, the scenery of the mountains has a romantic color, and the focus on the beautification of natural scenery makes it look even more dreamy, plus the imaginary picture that originally runs through the memory, so it looks even more unrealistic. Although the film tries to convey a praise of natural and traditional values, it feels very subjective, with a large number of close-ups of character expressions and first-person perspective shots, and the expressions are mostly seemingly very happy smiles, and the lack of explanation of excessive happiness gives people the feeling of being very suspended. The music from Hong Kong and Taiwan, the songs in English, and the Dong girls know how to use bowls to make the sound better, which seems to be intended to show that the people in the mountains are not closed, and staying in the mountains is the active choice of people. The director uses a soothing lens language to show the theme, making it slow and calm. In the film, the director mostly uses long-range and long-shot shooting methods, showing fathers, sons, dogs, walking together on the way to deliver mail, making it realistic and slowly unfolding the theme of responsibility. When the son was looking for the mail bag, the director used subjective shots and panning shots to make the picture shake. In this way, it shows the panic in his son's heart at this time. It also presents the theme of a responsibility. At the end of the film, a freeze-frame shot is used, and the direction of a road extends forward, which is also a witness and symbol of the postal inheritance between father and son.
The director uses an elaborate storyline to illustrate the theme. It is also the most attractive part of the film. At the beginning of the film, the father rearranges the storyline of the mail and the fast wind-blown email plot of the father himself when he is tired, and the theme of responsibility is vividly displayed. The plot of the son carrying the father across the river, inserting the father's back of the son when he was a child, and the plot of the five grandmothers finally agreeing to the son reading the letter for himself, shows a inheritance between responsibility and affection. Impress the viewer. The director uses the thematic sounds that give meaning to the subject matter. Sound as an artistic director enables the viewer to better understand the subject visually in combination with the auditory experience through lines and music. At the beginning of the film, the father draws a route for his son and explains them one by one, and the father's sentence "tap and put" when the son rests shows the theme of responsibility. Nervous music plays while the son is looking for his father and soothing music when he finds his father. The music profoundly reveals the psychology of the son. The son recalls the use of high-pitched music when his father met his mother, indicating the beauty of the encounter. Showing ordinary love can also make people feel warm.
In addition, the whole film uses a fresh and elegant style to narrate the story, and uses warm colors to show the encounter between father and mother, son and girl, and also shows a refreshing warmth. This is similar to the director's film "Warm", and it is full of warmth. For those who leave the mountain, the film clearly conveys a morally critical connotation. The grandson of the blind grandmother, who was admitted to a key university and no longer returned to his hometown, did not even bother to express a few words; Liu Ye did not want to marry the Dong woman he liked because he did not want her to be like his mother, and he missed her all his life after leaving dashan. It seems that the director has a strong willingness to refute the overwhelming modern, developmentalist narrative in the mainstream discourse, but if it is to resort to such a simple narrative, it may feel too wishful thinking and unconvincing. Touching is naturally touching, but whether it is touched or not seems to depend entirely on whether the audience is willing to accept this narrative, this emotion.
There are not many characters in the whole play, father, mother, son, second son, village secretary, five wives, Dong girls, chewa. The story is also very simple, the father passes on the work of the township postman to his son, and accompanies the son to walk the long postal road to the mountain again. On this seemingly ordinary post road, there is the sincere and simple love of the father and mother, the silent and strong affection of the father and son, the miss of the fifth wife for the grandson, and the chase of the dream by the car baby...