Mountain Patrol: Kekexili
by Chuan Lu
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Duobuji, Liang Qi, Xueying Zhao, Zhang Lei, Zhanlin MaDirector: Chuan Lu
Brand: Mountain
Cinematographer: Yu Cao
Writer: Chuan Lu
Producer: Yang Du
Producer: Zhonglei Wang
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Chinese (Original Language); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.40:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-08-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Mountain Patrol: Kekexili
Movie Review: A Deeply Moving Story, Magnificently Shot and Told
Summary: 5 Stars
Margaret Mead is reputed to have said, "Never doubt for a moment that a small group of committed, thoughtful people can make a difference. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." In MOUNTAIN PATROL, Director Chuan Lu demonstrates, indeed, how a small group of Tibetans made a difference in the vast and harshly beautiful region known as Kekexili (which the movie tells us means "beautiful mountains and girls."
In 1985, machine-gun toting poachers began ravaging Kekexili's herds of Tibetan antelopes for the furs, to be sold in the West. By the mid-1990's, an antelope population that numbered over a million had been reduced to less than 10,000 and was being hunted into extinction. Volunteer patrols of local Tibetans, including both the Wild Yak Brigade and the Kekexili Mountain Patrol, began their own efforts to block the poachers and protect their native wildlife. This story, set in the winter of 1996 and presumably based on true events, describes the efforts of the Kekexili Mountain Patrol and its leader, Captain Ri Tai.
The story line revolves around Ga Yu, a reporter from Beijing who is sent to Tibet to investigate the death of one of the Mountain Patrol's members at the hands of poachers. Ga Yu arrives a seeming novice in Tibet (even though his father was Tibetan) just in time to witness the slain patrolman's funeral ceremony. The deceased receives a sky burial, in which the human remains are chopped up and fed to vultures and the rest burned. Director Chuan Lu juxtaposes this form of human ritual with the appearance of vultures and the burnings of carcasses (antelopes, trucks, jeeps, etc.) throughout his film. Captain Ri Tai (Duo Buji, a dominating presence on the screen) reluctantly agrees to let Ga Yu accompany his patrol as they set out in search of the main band of poachers. Along the way, Ga Yu begins to understand that this search is more than just a policing action. It is protection of a venerated way of life; Kekexili has a sacred and primal place in the hearts of its people. As one character notes, the thing that haunts him about the land is that when he sets foot in a place, he may be the first person in all of human history to do so in that particular spot.
Ri Tai and his men (a former university student, a highway checkpoint worker for loggers, a taxi driver, a soldier, and a herder, among others) encounter a pelt carrier and a group of skinners, led by the wonderously terse but endearing old man, Ma Zhanlin (his real name as well as his character's name). In a clever moment of environmentalism, Chuan Lu has Old Ma tell us that he and his three sons were once shepherds, but the grasslands disappeared and they switched to skinning antelopes for the poachers for about sixty cents per pelt. In the end, Ri Tai finds his poacher and refuses the latter's bribes in the name of justice and preservation of the antelope herd. None of this is achieved without a price, however, and Chuan Lu exacts an enormous and often tragic toll on all the players in this cat-and-mouse game.
Chuan Lu's pacing in this movie is magnificent, slowing things down enough to mimic the pace of life (and the difficulty of breathing) in the Tibetan plateau yet keeping the action moving. The cinematography is breathtaking, both magnificent in its range and horrifying in its ferocity. Grays and earth tones predominate, so much so that the movie borders on black and white in places. Chuan Lu mixes Nature's basic elements - fire, ice, wind, water, sand, snow - into a stew of factors waging their own natural war on the patrol even as they as at war with the poachers. No one can mistake Kekexili for what it is: a majestic but unforgiving land where survival is a daily battle for man and beast. The battle between poachers and patrols make up a small piece of that larger struggle. This is a deeply felt exploration of the relationship between man and Nature and the role of human faith in the primacy of his natural environment.
Summary of Mountain Patrol: Kekexili
A jounalist documents the Kekexili mountain patrol, a group of volunteers determined to stop poachers from killing off the Tibetan antelopes.Genre: Foreign Film - Chinese
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 29-AUG-2006
Media Type: DVD
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