Adapted from Peng Jianming's novel Na Shan Na Na Na Dog, the film is directed by Huo Jianqi and is one of the few feature films in China that reflects postal themes.
The film adopts a sequential approach, starting from the father's retired son to take over the work of the township postman, and the father and son jointly walk the postal route where the father has walked for most of his life, and inserts a story about the father's youth.
The whole film has clear logic and sincere emotions, but such a drama is rarely known in China...
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > choice of subject matter</h1>
Postal films as a theme are almost blank in the Chinese market, but this is something that we often come into contact with.
You may not believe it, but at the 1999 Beijing World Philatelic Exhibition held more than 20 years ago, the organizing committee specially arranged for the screening of this film. However, at that time in China, there was no theater willing to purchase, only the movie channel known as the "Six Princesses" to purchase.
However, the show was bought and sold by Japan for 80,000 US dollars and sold 800 million at the box office, helping Japan earn 8 million US dollars. Even the drama's bibliography of the same name, "Na shan na na na dog", caused quite a stir in Japan after its release.
Therefore, I personally feel that shooting movies that are close to life is not necessarily a cliché.
Take the poverty alleviation dramas that have risen in the past two years, there are still many people who are willing to watch them.
Xiaobian himself likes to watch this kind of drama that reflects China's reality, such as the drama "Old Farmer", which reflects the three major transformation periods of rural areas; "Mountains and Seas", which reflects the poverty alleviation in Ningxia; "So Many Delicacies in Jiangshan", which reflects the process of poverty alleviation in the mountainous areas of Hunan, and so on.
These are all changes in the lives of peasants in the change of the times, and they are all things that are actually happening around us. Many directors may think that these box office is not good or something, but it is not. Because the "ordinary people" who have actually experienced these things are more intimate with these things.
And it does not exist that there will be people who cannot understand because of the difference in cultural level, and there will be no clichés.
Therefore, why not make these the subject matter of shooting a thousand times better than making some shoddy fake bad films?
In addition to the choice of themes mentioned above, in fact, the content portrayal of this film is also worth learning from most domestic films.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > description of love</h1>
I don't know why the response of this film in the international market is much better than at home, but this film is really worth watching. Not to mention how strong the rendering power of the realistic portrayal of the son inheriting the father's business to send mail is. The way this film mentions love alone is worth learning from many domestic films.
When it comes to love, this movie does not deliberately narrate and hype, but in the staggered memories of parents back and forth, it expresses the mother's sincere love for her father, who has been running on the township mail road for a lifetime, and her mother is silently waiting at the mouth of the village.
The father silently hurts the mother in his heart, leaving his son by his side to accompany the lonely mother for a lifetime, waiting for a lifetime; the mother confirms her love for her father in a letter from the birth of the son...
In addition, the love between the Dong girl and her son is also mentioned in the romance film. There seems to be no sea oath between the two pairs, and there is no vigorousness, but it still makes the audience's heart full of emotions, and true love seems to be so plain, like white water, but no one can leave.
Perhaps, this is the most sincere and ordinary love.
In contrast, the love interpretation of domestic movies is mostly straightforward and popular, without any hidden feelings and hazy moods, which can be described as making films for the sake of making money.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="23" > details</h1>
When he arrived at a village, the son thought that his father would be welcomed by the villagers, but everything was so ordinary and natural. Until everyone reacted that this was the last time my father would send a letter.
When they left, the villagers blocked the door of the village committee, and everyone had a simple smile on their faces. It's like saying goodbye to your father who is about to retire, and it's like welcoming your new self...
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="33" > about logical order</h1>
When crossing the stream, the son did not want his father to work as hard as before, first carrying a parcel across the river, and then carrying his father across the river. Deeply shocked, he said, "You don't have a parcel yet", but he didn't know that his father was already in tears on his son's back...
In this scene, "people say that the son can carry the father, and the son will grow up" makes us understand at once: the son at this time has grown a lot.
Finally arrived at the last village, the two stopped at the Wind and Rain Bridge halfway through. My son was sorting out his mail, and the mail rose with the wind. The father chased the letter like a lost soul, and even the "second elder" who had been running with him jumped up, just to retrieve the letter of the "mountain man" whose father regarded it as a treasure.
That scene made me deeply appreciate what is "at this time silence is better than sound". I think that's the second praiseworthy thing about this movie – the details are well portrayed.
Although domestic films have done a good job at this point, I personally feel that those details are a bit too coincidental to be convincing. Even sometimes when I see the depths I can't help but "spit out", how can it be so coincidental...
Mr. Qi Baishi is good at painting shrimp because he portrays the details to the extreme; Zheng Xie is famous for painting bamboo, but also because he understands the dynamic and static of bamboo in every detail; most writers have one or two of their famous novels as famous works, precisely because the details in the novel are the most reflective of the author's skill...
Throughout the movie, the logical sequence of father-son talking and storyline development is actually worth exploring separately:
At the beginning of this road, my son was still full of curiosity and doubt. So the narrator narrated: "My father had to go with me, and I couldn't stop him, but he followed, which was very awkward and unaccustomed." At this time, the son did not understand what this road meant, nor did he understand what the father was uneasy about.
The relationship between the two is as recalled in the movie, and the gathering is more "strange" (the long absence of the father in childhood makes the son desire to be close to the father on the one hand, and on the other hand, he is involuntarily strange and distant).
After entering the second village, my father took an envelope containing ten dollars and a blank piece of paper to the fifth grandmother, and recited the blank "letter" to the fifth grandmother. After thinking about it, the two of them hit the road again.
After some exchanges, the son seems to gradually understand the meaning of his father's work - to do his part to bring the "mountain people" external information, even if sometimes that information may be out of "white lies" to protect them. At this time, the distance between the son and the father is much closer.
When crossing the stream, the son carried his father, who was not yet heavy in the parcel, and suddenly understood his father's loneliness and difficulty. The first time the son was called "Dad", the distance between father and son was eliminated.
When he arrived at the last village, the transfer baby who read the correspondence school waited on the slope on time, and the father told him that in the future, it was his son who had climbed the mountain, and he should not wait any longer. The baby said: You have rolled down the mountain for us once, and you can't let your son roll down the mountain for us again. At this time, the son truly realized that his father had been obscure in his life, and what kind of road he was taking...
At this time, the son understood the father's difficulty in his heart and began to deeply understand the father. I also finally understood that my father followed him on this last postal route, saying goodbye to the responsibility of most of his life, and also saying to himself that he knew "living in the mountains, like feet in shoes, comfortable." The mountain people made a final farewell.
Even if you can't let go of this group of "mountain people" to arrange for your son to take over, you must complete the handover of this last postman with peace of mind...
On the last night on the mountain, the son told his father a lot of small family matters, afraid that his father would not be able to transfer the family's work because he was away for many years, and he would not be able to handle the interpersonal relations at home.
It's full of love for his father...
In this way, the two people with different concerns got the final solution under communication and understanding: under the teaching and teaching of the father's experience, the son slowly realized the father's loneliness, persistence and difficulty, and the father also slowly felt the pride of being a father in the understanding of the son.
This is the logical order of this movie, in chronological order and tour order, interspersed with a picture full of life, through the portrayal of details, to promote the development of the plot. Step by step, the whole film is connected.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > about social impact</h1>
With the end of this "three days and two nights" mail route, the son understands his father and interprets the phrase "when I grow up, I will become you".
The whole film does not have the "fifty cent special effects" that we are accustomed to, no "dog blood" romance, no stamp value, hype, etc.
Everything is like white water, truly and naturally through the dialogue between father and son, the "postal spirit" behind the "postal road" ("innovation, synergy, integrity, responsibility") is transmitted.
This is also the first time that I have deeply understood the contribution of the postal service to China's social development.
Understand the truth that the postal service is used to send all kinds of important documents; understand the social responsibility behind the phrase "the postal route is the postal route, like you think about opportunism all day long, and what postal route you run" - all over every village in China, so that anyone can receive a courier, can send a courier...
Obviously, the social impact of such a film cannot be achieved by vulgar soap operas, funny dramas, and idol love dramas.
Behind the film is a unique social influence, reflecting the social value that will never go out of style.
Such works with profound connotations and realistic support are the scarce resources of the Chinese film market now, but it is such an excellent film that has educational significance for the development of the film industry now, but it has landed such a lamentable "end" in China.