If the motherland were a river, I would be a fish swimming happily. If the motherland were a road, I would be a car moving forward happily. If the motherland were a tree, I would be a leaf waving in the breeze happily.Life is unpredictable, consisting of ups and downs.Sometimes you may be in high spirits, but at other times you can feel very low. Sometimes you may meet very good people, but don't forget villains do exist. Sometimes you may bound forward and run quickly, but you can be found staggering along one night.After a dead leaf falls down, it is absorbed by the soil and a new plant will grow.The cycle of birth, growth and death repeats itself, like the river in the last scene. That's life...No matter how feeble and helpless we may feel sometimes, human beings will still struggle with the environment and fate for an opportunity to live. Ahead of us are lots of things to experience, exciting and depressing. Nevertheless, because of pain, we know what pleasure is. (That's just like the walking scenes in the movie. When the girls working in the field, cars, cow and bicycle pass by, we know how fast Old Zhao walks. By the way, the audience may pay attention to the symbolic meanings of different vehicles in the movie, e.g. bicycles, coaches, carts, private cars, trucks, buses, etc.) If we were doomed to the sufferings, what we are able to change would be the way in which we interpret them. Be positive and never give up! The movie ends suddenly and the unfinished business may puzzle some members of the audience. However, I personally find it very meaningful and symbolic. The ending successfully upgrades this can-be-typical road movie to an abstract motto. "Life is a road comprising UPS and DOWNS. Do live each day happily as it comes and enjoy life to the full!" The ending (i.e. the river) also symbolically implies that human beings should not always emphasize the importance of results. Instead, we should pay attention to the process.Those touching moments, black humor, superb acting and the meaningful ending make this road movie a unique and impressive one causing catharsis. Moved to tears and laughter, you may ponder on the meaning of LIFE when you leave the theatre. My favourite movie in 2007!!!

"A falling leaf returns to its roots" is a Chinese proverb. This endearing film is based on this proverb. It is a modern day story of mainland China--an emerging economic power. Rural migrants are attracted to the cities in search of prosperity. One such 50 year-old-migrant construction worker Zhao (a commendable performance by actor Zhao Benshan), is surprised to find during a drinking bout in a pub that his buddy is not dead drunk but dead as a doornail. As a good peasant would, Zhao vows to keep his promise made during the drinking session that if either buddy died, the other would carry/transport the dead body to the dead man's village and bury his body there. As a promise is promise, Zhao uses all his wits and physical strength to transport the dead body to the village. The fallen leaf has to return to its roots.What a yarn, you will say! But hold on. The Chinese director Yang Zhang and his scriptwriter Yao Wang built the film script around a real incident in 2006 when a Chinese peasant did carry a dead buddy to his village oblivious of all Chinese laws that prohibit such an action to ensure that the dead man did not transform into a "hungry ghost." Now director Zhang, scriptwriter Wang and a fascinating comic actor Zhao Benshan weave a "Pilgrim's Progress" type road-movie story that constantly shifts from escapist top-gear to formidable realism overdrive as it unspools an array of human behavior--some loathsome, some endearing, some moralizing, some quirky but all very real.There are vignettes of Asian values. You encounter robbers who appreciate the value of friendship and return their loot to those who honor commitments of friendship. You are shown mothers living as anonymous rag-pickers and professional blood donors, so that their offspring can pursue a comfortable career in the city. Wealthy rural folk do not know who really loves and respects them, and therefore arrange mock funerals following their own faked death to glimpse the truth. There is the philosophical young man who would like to ride to "Tibet" or the roof of the world. There is a family that lives far away from society because the wife/mother has been disfigured by an accident, and yet is a wonderful person. There is a truck driver who having lost his love is crestfallen, but needs someone else to set the compass of his life to regain his lost love.There are other vignettes that show the unhealthy characteristics of economic progress. Construction companies employ migrants but cheat them by paying salaries in counterfeit notes. Highway restaurants overcharge their clients and use thugs to extort money if they don't pay up. Seedy blood banks pay money for any type of blood donor because there is money in the business. Rich families in cars do not stop to give lifts to the poor and stranded on the roads. Once-robbed travelers do not show compassion to the individual who was responsible for the return of stolen goods—they are concerned with their possessions. Women accuse men staring at them without bothering to check if the accusation is real or imagined. The list goes on.The movie underlines that there are two sorts of people. One lot cares for others, empathizes with their problems and helps them get out of their predicaments. The other lot lives for themselves and concentrates on their own material interests. The rural folk seem to fall into the first category, while the neo-rich fall into the other.The ultimate destination of the "road movie" is the controversial Three Gorges mega-dam. On route to the dam, the viewer can glimpse breathtaking landscapes of China. Is the director feeling sorry for the village of the dead man (and the associated values that go with rural, simple life) that has been covered with the waters of the dam? Only the director can answer, we can only ask the question.The funny thing about the movie is that while the character and milieu is Chinese, the essential elements are universal in any economy "progressing" from rich traditional values to a more consumerist, urban rat race. It is no wonder that the film won the 2007 Berlin Film Festival Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Best Asian film NETPAC award at the recent International Film Festival of Kerala. The movie makes you laugh, but tugs at your conscience. The "falling leaf" in your soul, would like to return to "the root" or traditional life styles when people bonded well and were not out to make a quick buck.Very close in subject and treatment to the 2004 Iranian black comedy "Khab e-talkh (Bitter Dreams)," director Zhang and scriptwriter Yang need to be complimented for painting a "celluloid" canvas that entertains those who crave for escapism (amidst all the black humor). The viewer has to discount the fact that the body does not decay and the Zhao never tires carrying a dead man around. While the escapist element is in the foreground, the real strength of the film comes from the realistic vignettes that are not Chinese but universal in values and temperament. Here is yet another Chinese film that entertains and offers ample food for thought.

the film is philosophical, yet simple.......... it says that human life itself is a journey.we all have some promises to keep and these promises keep our life meaningful(!).here the hero has to get his friend's body to his home.on the way to home of the dead he meets people with different nature.some of the experiences were sour.but it does not make any change on him,his innate qualities are left intact.it makes us remember of the the fact that journey is the nature and essence of human life.this journey passes through the variety of the land scape and similarity of the human nature across the geographical and political frontiers.we can identify it with our own experience of moving with a body that is not at all of ours!

From this movie ,you could see people who live in the bottom of China modern society. Poor people showed his brave heart and Chinese traditional virtue.I think it is the best movie this year. Much more better than Zhangyimou's huge movie ---the Curse of Golden Flower .Simple script but a great movie!Rich people but cold heart;Young lucky boy traveling with dream; Great mum sacrifice for his son ; Young beauty walk on the edge of city; Also the dark side:evil boss whom cheat his employee with fake money;robber on the highway;cheating eatery on the road; ... It is so real,just a portrait of today's China.