Your mileage may vary depending on which direction the trains and time are flowing. Curious to see bi-lingual Mandarin/English reviews, I tried to pause on the poems voiced over during the film, but too often they washed over me like the constant flow of water through-out.The film is both heavy on symbolism, as well as strongly rooted on the earth, specifically the territory in the Guizhou Province, which apparently looks both rustic and post-industrial. Another review mentioned vehicles that fail that is a good metaphor for the film, but the viewer does travel with this film, if not where one might expect.I am curious if the language ends up being a bigger tipping point to what is at play here. The blurring of characters/time perhaps indicated by key phrases or tenses. Or even in tense phrases, the scene in the make-shift salon where our Dr. Hero gets his haircut felt unsettling in an interesting way. And I wasn't even the woman giving the good Dr. his trim.Besides the much discussed long single shot, so much fascinating tracking done (presumably by quite and highly reliable motorcycles) and great projected images at times.Again I remain curious if this feels foreign to even folks familiar with the physical, if not emotional territory covered. I look forward to more films from Gan Bi after this auspicious beginning.

Finding the picks of films from Asia to view for the ICM fest last year fascinating,I looked forward to seeing what had been selected this year. Aware of the mainstream titles from China, I was interested to find that an "indie" movie had been picked for viewing,which led to me travelling Kaili.The plot:Working at a small clinic in Kaili,one of the doctors called Chen Sheng begins to feel a need to meet one of his cousins for the first time in ages. Stepping aboard a train with no destination in mind, Sheng discovers small towns that are caught in the midst's of time.View on the film:Sending Sheng across the countryside on motorbike and train, writer/director Gan Bi & cinematographer Tianxing Wang follow each part of the journey in beautiful tracking shots,with the centre- piece being a one-take 40 minute section, that does not go for anything flashy,to breath in the rural atmosphere,with Bi keeping the camera at a distance,so the viewer can see the unfolding of everyday life Sheng witnesses. Going on the road with Sheng, the screenplay by Bi gives the dialogue a naturalistic, poetic quality,that wash the screen as Sheng, (played by a very good Yongzhong Chen) casts his eyes across every town in search of his cousin, as Sheng gets the Kaili Blues.

Like this movie, because the dense atmosphere seemed to correlate with their own, the plumes of water vapor, cloudy day long, lonely forest, Yamanaka Shizu River, a mysterious legend, obvious signs of agricultural and semi modern town have is experience in southern scene, director in the landscape made a strange alienation effect, like hide and seek, in daily life in digging a secret tunnel, the legends and anecdotes, reality and illusion of hybrid, leading to different degrees of time, cross parallel character trajectory, their involvement, and independent. Carey, swing wheat, Zhenyuan, three a geographical noun, strung up now and in the future, in the past, Chen l like a man without a history, very strange blankness and obscure, someone says his former, like talking about their own, when he say to other people in the past, like yourself. To Zhenyuan Chen L and to find Wei Wei, looking for the old doctor's old lover, rather a journey into the unknown, to find a retreat.

I ended up going alone for Kaili Blues for a 10 PM screening at the Mumbai Film Festival 2015. In accordance with standard procedure, I entered the cinema hall baked and ready to enjoy what my cousin described the night before as simply mesmerizing. At first, the theme of the film is familiar. It is essentially a mission to rescue someone (Weiwei) whom the protagonist (Chen) loves. As the film progresses, it takes on an increasingly surrealistic tone, almost losing its way from reality into the imagination of Chen as he travels the hills of China in search of his beloved nephew. The highlight of Kaili Blues is its cinematography. But there is a directorial element that I absolutely adored; the extended shots! Almost reminiscent of Birdman or a Tarantino film, the camera effortlessly follows our hero on bike, foot and boat uninterrupted, as he experiences his past, present and future. I wish this film all the best and hope it releases in a cinema near you!