Postmen in the Mountains

Huo Jianqi's 1999 Chinese film is set in the mountains of Hunan. An old postman who has spent his life carrying mail to the mountain villages is about to retire and hand the route to his son. The two walk the three-day round together one last time. The film is almost entirely that walk: the letters carried, the houses called at, the river crossings, and the things a father and son have left unsaid for years. The work kept the father away from home almost permanently; the son does not know him. The journey becomes the introduction. Huo uses the landscape as emotional ground and makes no attempt to manufacture turning points. Few films use silence this well. Who it's for: viewers who like slow, quiet Asian cinema about relations between generations. Who it's not for: anyone looking for plot and tension; the film is one walk from beginning to end.