"Old Friend in Mountains and Rivers" tells the story of Zhang Jinsheng, Shen Tao, and Liang Zi's generation and their hometown during the twenty-six years of historical changes from 1999 to 2025. Emotions, desires, aging, separation, emptiness, dislocation, and loneliness.
Just like "The Grand Budapest Hotel" uses different frames to express different levels of stories, "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers" uses three aspect ratios of 4:3, 16:9, and 2.35:1, corresponding to Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, to create a kind of historical authenticity of images across the ages. From the dance at the end of the century in 1999, to the separation of old friends in 2014, to the longing across the shore in 2025, it is like a gradually stretched lament.
In 1999, Zhang Jinsheng, the owner of a gas station who had just bought a car, and Liang Zi, who was looking at the warehouse in the mine, fell in love with Shen Tao, who loved to dance. In the end, Shen Tao chose Zhang Jinsheng, who was more interesting and richer, while Liang Zi chose to leave his hometown. In the 4:3 viewfinder, people seem to be very close to each other, and there are always many people around the main characters. They are surrounded by crowds. The director expresses that people in that era were very close and their emotions were very warm. .
In 2014, Liang Zi, who got cancer, had no choice but to return to his hometown and ask someone to borrow money for medical treatment. At this time, Shen Tao and Zhang Jinsheng had divorced, Zhang Jinsheng went to Shanghai, and Shen Tao took over the gas station. Shen Tao's father died at the train station, and his son Zhang Daole came back to attend the funeral. After the funeral, Shen Tao took a train to send his son back to Shanghai. On the train, Shen Tao gave Daole a set of keys to his home. The 16:9 full-frame filling gives the audience a sense of on-the-spot realism, and also expresses people's helplessness in the face of birth, old age, illness, death, and the passing of old friends.
In 2025, Dao Le, who has been educated in the West, communicates with his father Zhang Jinsheng through Google Translate. Daole falls in love with his Chinese teacher Mia. Zhang Daole was unwilling to admit his father and mother, but under Mia's influence, he revealed his mother's Chinese name "Tao" and wanted to return to China to visit his mother. In the future time and space of 2.35:1, the surroundings of the characters are very empty, giving people a feeling of alienation, just like Dao Le and his son can no longer go to each other, just like the Labrador is the only one accompanying Shen Tao.
The most intense scene of the movie appears at the end. Compared with the first scene of the movie, many people in the disco are dancing together, and the same background music "Go West" gradually sounds, but at this time only Zhao Tao danced alone in the heavy snow. Her trembling body seemed to be pouring out all her experiences of more than twenty years to the mountains and rivers of her hometown. This scene lasts only two minutes, but it is enough to set up the story of the previous two hours.
The location has been changed, the scene has been changed, the only thing that remains unchanged is the dancer. People around Shen Tao come and go, just like the characters who appear one after another in our lives and disappear in the interlacing light and shadow.
When Liang Zi left, he said that he had already said goodbye at the disco; his father passed away suddenly without even saying goodbye. So Shen Tao insisted on taking a train to accompany his son across half of China, just for a long farewell. However, many years later, she was finally blurred in her son's memory.
There is a saying on the movie poster: Everyone can only accompany you for a certain distance. So when you say goodbye, you must be a little more forceful. Ye Qianwen's "Treasure" has been heard many times in movies. Jia Zhangke once commented on this song: Ye Qianwen's songs are connected by love and meaning. It is not only sentimental, but also meaningful. She said, "I hope that things will always turn around." You can think of it The person she loves may be in some kind of crisis and may have been separated and estranged, but she still cares about him, still has the blessing of love, and still has a longing for him.
Shen Tao, who has stayed with his hometown all his life, has lost friends, love, father, and son, but still clings to life in his hometown. Zhang Jinsheng, who became a rich man, left his hometown without changing his accent but could never go back. He could only find his lost hometown with a group of fellow villagers who spoke the same dialect. The taciturn Liangzi wandered away for fifteen years and finally returned to his roots, returning to the dusty empty house. As for Dao Le, who has always kept the key to his home, his hometown is just a legend. He is a person without a hometown and cannot understand nostalgia after all.
Someone expanded the four characters of the movie title to eight: The mountains and rivers remain the same, but the old friends are gone. The English name of the movie is Mountains May Depart. This name should come from the Bible: For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed. So what the movie really wants to express is: mountains and rivers are broken, but old friends remain the same .
But can Shen Tao wait for his son's return?