Cha ma gu dao xi lie (2004) Poster

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8/10
A slow documentary, but educational and rewarding
ron-chow21 January 2007
This is a documentary done about people that live around the 'Tea-Horse' route in a southern region of China bordering Yunnan and Tibet. The route is far less known than its northern counterpart, the Silk Route. I was never aware of it until I saw this film and now I have a desire to visit it some day.

Camera work was visually satisfying. The scenery was unique and gorgeous. Interviews with the locals were honest and unpretentious, although some could be cut short to reduce the overall length of the film from over 2 hours to, say, 90 minutes to make this film a bit tighter and less tedious.

You will find this film interesting if you care about how people live in that part of the world. The part that is totally disconnected from the economic engine of China; the part where time appears to have stood still for decades. There is this family of devout Catholics, and the story how their members maintained their faith throughout the political turmoil. And there are these two Tibetan brothers who shared a wife and still achieve harmony. And other characters that are very removed from our daily life.

The film is about simple people, their environment, and their aspirations. I find it very educational and visually rewarding.
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9/10
The meaning of life
mrl21830 April 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Delamu follows a trade caravan along the old trade route of the Tea-Horse Road (aka southern silk road) that connects the Chinese inland area with Tibet. We see interviews with local villager (Tibetan and various other ethnic minorities) and learn about their lives along the way. The beautiful landscape needs to be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated. I loved the interviews with the local villagers, too.

My friends thought the movie was too slow. Maybe it's a cultural gap. I would guess that the locals aren't used to talking so much at length, so they tended to talk slowly and haltingly. But I appreciated their sincerity. What they said reaffirmed my belief that people everywhere share the same needs and desires, though their everyday lives may be very different.

Of the people we meet in the movie, I especially liked the old woman who kicked her lazy first husband out of the house and married a second more capable man, the man who cried over his mule that was killed by a falling rock during the journey, and the female school teacher at the end who revealed her "secret" wish of her wanting a man who she can talk to and love and her plan to leave home to look for him.
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