【電影簡介】

村里有個單身男青年叫做“樹先生”（王寶強），常去村口的酒館和朋友喝酒，在村里閑晃。“樹先生”在汽修鋪受工傷后，在醫(yī)院被解雇，心生悲戚，竟無所事事調(diào)戲護士（何潔）。一起長大的伙伴，有人開著好車成了煤老板，有人遠在省城辦私立學(xué)校。村子里的煤礦日夜開采，地面下沉，整個村莊不得不遷往別處。常被取笑被漠視的“樹”干脆遠走省城在學(xué)校打工，孩子們讓他想起自己的童年。父親和哥哥在“樹”小時候就離開了人世，他常夢到自己的父親，卻從來夢不到哥哥。與聾啞女孩小梅（譚卓）一見鐘情，相愛過程頗富戲劇性，婚禮前夜，“樹”終于夢到了哥哥一一在寒冷冬天，在“樹”的婚禮上，哥哥帶著女友為他唱了一首詭異的八十年代流行歌《冬天里的一把火》。從此，“樹”意識到自己能夠通靈。其實樹先生已經(jīng)被現(xiàn)實和夢想的糾結(jié)中瘋了，村里發(fā)生的很多事情都驗證了他的預(yù)言，“樹”成為受人尊敬的“預(yù)言家”，被人尊稱為“樹先生”。

【音頻文本】

We Chinese are now living in an age of rapid urbanization. In most inland cities, this process is feeding on the development of resource-based industries, for example the mining and real estate industries. As cities spread their tentacles across the country, the force of urbanization inevitably flows over the rural areas and brings challenge to the lives and values of the locals. The movie ‘Mr. Tree’ is about this confrontation.

The main character is a peasant farmer called Shu, or tree in Chinese. When most people in the village arethriving in the process of urbanization, Shu finds it difficult to make a living, and no one pays him enough respect. After a series of failures and humiliations, he finally loses his sanity and becomes a psychicfortune teller, a common figure in Chinese villages.

Perhaps many moviegoers' first reaction is to sympathize with a character of such tragic fate. A victim ofurbanization, Shu has obviously lost land as the means of living, and is compelled to challenge himself invain in the city. But on second thought, the viewers may find out more reasons why the director would choose to tell the story of such a victim.

Shu is a symbol of Chinese rural values. He is continually haunted by the ghost of his father who represents the strict paternal power upheld in traditional Chinese villages, and Shu himself is a defender of the social system that values the concept of blood relation and intergeneration courtesy. As a man short of ability and achievement, he could only count on his seniority of generation for decent respect from his fellow villagers. But when everyone around him fails to deliver that respect, he suffers a value system breakdown. In his insanity, he forms a bizarre spiritual connection with a tree that gives him supernatural power, a development that coincides with the reality in Chinese villages where superstitions are still common practice.

Actor Wang Baoqing, who rose from grass-root to stardom, presents a vivid portrayal of a peasant farmer caught in the clash of urban and rural cultures. Better still is the young director Han Jie, a disciple of realist director Jia Zhangke who is keen on depicting the lives of ordinary Chinese men. Generally the filmflows all right but there is noticeable incongruence, for example Shu’s relation with a deaf girl is spedup to marriage, in order to provide the occasion that break Shu’s nerves. However, Han does make up for his drawback through his attention to details, and the use of surrealistic scenes which is, according to many critics, a breakthrough from his master.

It takes some romantic courage for a director to turn out realistic products. In terms of box office, Mr. Tree is not even listed in the Top 10, but I have to say it deserves better than most of those in the list.On a scale from one to ten, I give this film 7.5.

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