User reviews

Tang (Yang Haoyu) has devoted his life to the search for extraterrestrials, both as the editor of a magazine devoted to space exploration and as an explorer himself, following up on leads that take him to remote spots where people claim to have seen aliens. As his efforts to keep the magazine afloat are failing, he hears of a mass sighting in a small village in the mountains, and he recruits three others to help him investigate. Once there, he finds an eccentric young man who appears to be the conduit of alien communication, if only he can find one specific location....

This is billed as a "mockumentary" and serves to send up one of the foundations of Chinese literature, which involves a man traveling to the West to locate and bring home Buddhist teachings; here, the tale seems at first a more pitiable and hollow version of the story, but as it develops it becomes something much more, ending as a meditation on the Universe itself. Be warned, however: as a "mockumentary," the filmmakers chose to use hand-held cameras for filming much of the movie, so if you are subject to motion sickness, this movie might not be for you. While I was at first put off by this, by the end of the film I felt very touched indeed, and I'm very glad I saw it.

A well made heartwarming film, interspersed with a whimsical undertone and aptly curated scores. I am searching for similar pieces but at the moment would kind of place it like a feel-good outdoorsy The Office in a different cultural setting. I thought the english translation of the title could be renamed a little better as its namesake is a popular Chinese novel; despite the characters making appearance in the film and the train journey west from beijing to chengdu. Glad to see that it has won several awards and accolades. The director of photography a did a good job in capturing south-western china.

Today I skipped an entire day of classes (one 90-minute machine learning class and two recitations) just to watch this movie thoroughly. As an 18-year-old who grew up in Beijing, China, and now attends college in the U. S. studying technology, I felt deeply connected to the discussion about rural science. I remember, when I was little, I used to go to an art studio deep in the hutongs of Houhai. I'd spend an entire afternoon completing a painting. We probably experimented with many different mediums, but I only remember using acrylics because all my attention was focused on how to sneak in time to watch Charlie IX on my iPad during bathroom breaks. There was also a kebab shop we always passed by on our way.

There's a saying that scientists shouldn't be religious-that they should be agnostic since no religion has been definitively proven true or false. But whether scientific or not, beliefs are what support people. The answer to the universe is ourselves, and just as DNA forms genes, we form the answer. While chasing the infinite answer, if you turn around, "you'll see the afterglow of the universe".

It's a really humorous film that treats it's characters with grace and understanding. The humor may not be for everyone but if you are a fan of mockumentaries ND sci-fi it's 100% worth watching. The movie is also a love letter to western China. Having traveled through almost all of China's western provinces, it was so immersive to relive some of these forests, mountains, and country villages. I love that the movie doesn't sugar coat the area and instead showcases the natural beauty of the region. It's also a gorgeous film as it seems like it was shot on location primarily and really made use of the mockumentary format to make an extremely immersive movie for how goofy it is. Overall I think it's really fun and very heartwarming watching this odyssey of a movie.

All things are good so I'll cut to the only two issues:

1.

The camera shake went too far.

It's trying to give a documentary vibe, but for those of us who have watched quite a lot of documentaries, the problem sticks out pretty obviously.

The cameraman was DELIBERATELY SHAKING the camera, while in real documentaries, cameramen FAILS TO KEEP the camera stable. That's a huge difference if you examine it in detail.

2. The ending sucks.

I've heard two different explanations. Some say it's for the censorship. Some say the company required it to the director.

Either way, it's horrible. As we say in Chinese, like adding legs to a snake painting.