Bill Stamets

(Nashan naren nagou) Director Huo Jianqi and his screenwriter wife Si Wu lovingly craft a scenic off-road film of filial bonding: a retiring postman on his last run, led by his loyal dog, guides his son on a three-day, 122 kilometer hike up and down trails in the steep, verdant, mist-wreathed mountains. Father (Teng Lujan) and Son (Liu Ye) are played, respectively, by a professor and student at Central Drama Academy in Beijing in this gentle tale inspired by Peng Jianming's short story "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog." These letter carriers are noble civil servants. Father initiates Son into a personalized service he provides: improvising tender messages and pretending to read mail from distant city kin to an old woman who once wept herself into blindness after receiving some tragic news. "Without principles, life is meaningless," teaches the Father, who asks his Son to turn down the boom box. A New Age-style score by Wang Xia borders on gooey but does not intrude. Made in 1999, "Postmen in the Mountains" contrasts with He Jianjun's 1995 feature "Postman" (Youchai), where a young forlorn letter carrier in the city follows in the footsteps of his disgraced boss and begins peeking into envelopes. "Postmen in the Mountains" is a paean to peasant values eroded by the tide of unemployed headed towards factory jobs in Chinas ugly cities. "Mountain people have nothing, only mountains," states the father in Huo Jianqi's uplifting film. For Mao, that'd be a call to arms. Now it sounds like a critique of urban materialism. 90 minutes.

" Postmen in the Mountains" opens Friday at the Music Box.

(2005-01-03)

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