''Postmen in the Mountains'' () is a

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

Chinese film directed by

Huo Jianqi Huo Jianqi (; born January 20, 1958) is a Chinese film director. Like the cinematographer turned director Gu Changwei, Huo Jianqi began his cinematic career in the art department. Nearly all of Huo's films have been written by his wife and collabo ...

. It is based on the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

of the same name by Peng Jianming (). ''Postmen in the Mountains'' tells the story of an old man ( Teng Rujun) who for years served as the postman for rural mountain communities. Retiring, he hands over his job to his son ( Liu Ye), but accompanies him on the first tour. Together, they deliver mail on a 230 '' li'' (about 115 km) long walking route, into the rural heart of China and in the process the son learns from the mails' recipients more about the father he hardly knew. It was filmed on location in Suining County and Dao County, in southwestern and southern

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

. A portion of the film takes place in a village of the

Dong people The Kam people, officially known in China as Dong people (; endonym: , ), a Kam–Sui people of Southern China, are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They are famed for their native-bred ''Kam ...

, including an evening festival featuring a '' lusheng'' dance.

Plot

The film is set in the mountainous regions of the western

province in the early 1980s. At the film's start, a young man ( Liu Ye) begins his first journey as a

postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

at the mountainous rural areas of the aforesaid regions. His father ( Teng Rujun), a veteran postman forced to retire due to a bad knee, decides to accompany him together with the family's faithful dog, Buddy. The father walks his son through the nitty-gritty of the job, and the son realizes the mailman job entails not just the sending of letters. He witnesses his father's deep friendship with the villagers, and participates in a wedding celebration with the

. The film includes a number of memory flashbacks, as well as many

pop song Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

s played on the son's

transistor radio A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following the invention of the transistor in 1947—which revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing small but powerful, convenient ...

(including Michael Learns to Rock's "That's Why You Go Away", which is an anachronism given that the film is set in the early 1980s).

Reception

''Postmen'' was well received both abroad and at home in China where it won both Best Film and Best Actor (for Teng Rujun) at the

Golden Rooster Awards The Golden Rooster Awards () are film awards given in mainland China. The awards were originally given annually, beginning in 1981. The name of the award came from the year of the Rooster in 1981. Award recipients receive a statuette in the shap ...

in 1999.

Awards and nominations

**Best Actor – Teng Rujun **Best Film * Awards of the Japanese Academy, 2002 **Best Foreign Film (nominated) *

Mainichi Film Concours The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

, 2002 **Best Foreign Language Film *

Montréal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Internat ...

, 2002 **People's Choice Award **Grand Prix des Amériques (nominated)

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Postmen In The Mountains 1999 films Chinese drama films Films based on short fiction Films directed by Huo Jianqi Films set in Hunan Golden Rooster Best Film recipients 1990s Mandarin-language films 1990s road movies Films with screenplays by Si Wu