Postmen in the Mountains

A meditative movie that ultimately chokes on its own sweetness, Huo Jianqi's drama follows a reticent postal carrier as he trains his headstrong son to assume his rural route in China in the early 1980s. The older man's constant work-related hikes, however, have made him somewhat of an absentee dad, and neither communicate with each other very well. The film's universal subject matter and contemplative pace suggest a wide appeal, but a surfeit of expository dialogue—"Now I realize I am actually old," sayeth the father—and heart-tugging flashbacks render the film more treacly than touching.