Tuesday 4 November 2014

Bike Film: One Mile Above

"One Mile Above" is a Chinese Film with English subtitles about a young Taiwanese man called Shuhao who decides to fulfil his brother's plans to cycle to Lhasa in Tibet after he is killed in an accident.  His journey includes learning to ride a bike, enduring the hardships of cold, altitude, snow, steep terrain, wild animals and through the experience come to terms with loss.
I watched this film yesterday and its was brilliant with the story being unpredictable and thoroughly engaging.  The cinematography is superb providing a sense of movement to the cycling scenes that I've not come across before in other bike related films.  Some of the cutting techniques used are reminiscent of European films such as "The Name of the Rose". There is also real sense of journey coupled with believable characters and convincing acting.  The result is a portrayal of the emotions that an epic journey can bring and the connections that can be made with strangers.
There is fantastic Tibetan scenery and it's sympathetic to Tibetan culture.  The only negatives are the overly dramatic depiction riding up one of the long 5000m passes, done for effect but are definitely preposterous,  and the speed of the subtitles.
A recommend this film and you can watch it here on YouTube in poor quality.  I've ordered the DVD and I'm looking forward to seeing it projected onto a screen. 

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