kluseba Here comes a dark comedy movie from People's Republic of China with a not truly original story but some great images and a solid acting.After the death of a coworker, his colleague and friend wants to fulfil his mate's last wish and bring his cadaver in his small home town that happens to be almost two thousand miles away. On his way through the big and diversified country, the man on his strange mission meets a lot of strange people such as philosophical thieves, heartbroken truck drivers, lonely but smart old men, bikers that are looking for freedom and fulfilment, cutthroat restaurant owners, desperate but cordial beggars and dutiful police officers before the movie ends with a little twist.The movie has a lot of colourful characters and kicks off with the most funny and intriguing scenes in the bus and with a truck driver. After a strong start, the movie gets a little bit redundant now and then and has a couple of lengths. Even the good acting in this road movie can't help that the movie sometimes gets lost. In contrast to these lengths, the beginning and the ending of the movie are definitely too abrupt and lack of depth.The movie doesn't centre around its weak plot but around true Chinese valours and the diversified cultures, landscapes and people. I though feel that this movie is once again slightly propagandistic and tries to dress an almost perfect image of the Chinese people even if there are also one or two bad boys to find. Every recent Chinese movie contains some proverbs and traditional songs. When you first see and hear this, it's exotic, intriguing and original but it gets a boring and pretentious trend. It's the same as if every second American film would include Christmas carols and mention the American Dream. It would get annoying after a while. This movie also contains too many proverbs and carols.In the end, this movie is especially an interesting one for anybody that doesn't know that much about Chinese culture as one can discover a lot of cultural things about this amazing country in this movie. Anybody that is used to Chinese cinema won't discover anything new and apart of a very solid start, a very good acting and a well done romance towards the end, this flick remains quite average. It's worth to be watched once but nothing more in my humble opinion.

abdijantr 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!

edchin2006 As with many "Road Movies" this is also a "Buddy Film". Only, the buddy is a very "silent partner". "Weekend at Bernie's" and "The Trouble with Harry" spring to mind, but our friend does not nearly play such an active role as Bernie or Harry - though he does provide the reason for being on the road.Travelling with our buddies through China on the way to the Three Gorges really has the feel of being on Route #66, China. I felt like I was looking over Charles Kuralt's shoulder whenever there was yet another vignette of rural China. Wheather true or not, I come away with the belief I know/understand these people of the earth. The touching and moving parts of the film are meant to tug at our heart-strings but do not feel contrived. That so many of the commenter's express how beautifully the film shows "their" China, I am convinced that such hardships are typical there.Yet, with all the sadness, this is a "feel good" movie. Life goes on, tomorrow is another day, and our journey's end is just down the road a bit.

woody_emcee I watched this film with my homiez in theatre ,Ji Nan,i found the audience can not help themselves 2 laugh out loudly several times,the main reason IMO is because of Zhao benshan,one of the best comedian in China.Every traditional Chinese new year show,if the show without the performance of Zhao Benshan,maybe kind of boring,so you will know what a great actor he is.This flick directed by Zhang yang who also directed The Shower(XiZao),tells a farmer(in China also called Ming Gong) who tries to bring home the body of his friend, who died far from their town,on the way to his dead friends home happened lots of unexpected things,some of them are funny,some of them are so moving,it proved the priceless of the promise.Zhao benshan played this role so naturally with the accent of northeast,it was hard for a man whose age nearly 50 to nonstop carrying body such a long distance,it make me thinking of a song called "the people from northeast were all alive Lei Feng",lolThis film set in Southwest of China,the scene was beautiful,cinematography and the colors were remarkable...I give this film 10/10,no doubt,if you are a big fan of Zhao benshan,go to watch it,don't miss,it worth your money!