【电影简介】

村里有个单身男青年叫做“树先生”（王宝强），常去村口的酒馆和朋友喝酒，在村里闲晃。“树先生”在汽修铺受工伤后，在医院被解雇，心生悲戚，竟无所事事调戏护士（何洁）。一起长大的伙伴，有人开着好车成了煤老板，有人远在省城办私立学校。村子里的煤矿日夜开采，地面下沉，整个村庄不得不迁往别处。常被取笑被漠视的“树”干脆远走省城在学校打工，孩子们让他想起自己的童年。父亲和哥哥在“树”小时候就离开了人世，他常梦到自己的父亲，却从来梦不到哥哥。与聋哑女孩小梅（谭卓）一见钟情，相爱过程颇富戏剧性，婚礼前夜，“树”终于梦到了哥哥一一在寒冷冬天，在“树”的婚礼上，哥哥带着女友为他唱了一首诡异的八十年代流行歌《冬天里的一把火》。从此，“树”意识到自己能够通灵。其实树先生已经被现实和梦想的纠结中疯了，村里发生的很多事情都验证了他的预言，“树”成为受人尊敬的“预言家”，被人尊称为“树先生”。

【音频文本】

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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