Cloudy Mountain

A railway tunnel through a mountain is nearly finished when an earthquake starts in the region. The town at the tunnel mouth will be wiped out if the mountain comes down. A demolition expert and his engineer son, estranged from each other, end up in the same operation. Li Jun directed. Zhu Yilong plays the son, Huang Zhizhong the father. The film belongs to the disaster and rescue genre China has produced steadily in recent years: large infrastructure, crowded teams, the individual sacrificed for the collective. The effects load is heavy; the collapsing tunnel, the flood and the rockfalls show where the budget went. The reckoning between father and son carries the emotional side, and as the genre requires it is resolved at the last minute. It did well at the Chinese box office. The politics are plain: rescue always comes through the state and collective labour. Who it is for: viewers who like large-scale disaster films. Who it is not for: anyone after depth of character; the film prefers impact to feeling.