Here at my home on a small Indonesian island, we were having terrible problems with our Wi-Fi, it’s never great, but heavy rains each day made it even worse – this matters because the films I screen and review are largely posted as private links on various platforms. For three days, I tried to watch Buddha Mountain, but it stuttered and stopped and would play for 15 seconds and then pause for 20 seconds before re-starting. It was maddening, but instead of giving up, something was telling me from the start that this would be a film worth the effort.

It sure was.

On the third day, I finally got to see this Chinese film all the way through. It is charming and wistful and sometimes funny and sometimes heartbreaking – it’s hard to ask for more from a movie than that.

Three kids (late teens or have they reached 20ish?) are somewhat aimless, not headed for University, which to their parents means that they have no future.

Fan Bingbing (one of China’s leading actresses) is a bar singer and the girlfriend of Chen Po Lin’s Rebel Without A Cause type of character. The third wheel referred to as Fatso and played with comedic effect by Fei Long rounds out the trio.

After a she accidentally swings a speaker into a front row customer’s crotch, prompting a lawsuit, the three use it as a catalyst to hit the road.

They end up renting rooms in the home of former Peking Opera star Yue Qin (veteran Sylvia Chang), a sad, haunted woman of a certain age who has suffered a great loss.

The film shifts into a lighter middle as the generation gap, obviously a universal dynamic. They think she’s crotchety, she thinks they’re silly punks. Mild hijinks pop up.

But later, after they have inevitably become close, for reasons I will not say, they head for a gorgeous mountain retreat where the remnants of the 2008 earthquake damage introduce a way for them to help do something that is bonding and life affirming,.

Things I am leaving out: another young character whose brief appearance provides the film’s most emotional scene. Discord between the young lovers. Ms. Qin’s reason for sadness and how it is revealed. And the ending.

Why? Because a quiet art house film like this is more than a set of plot points, it is a literal and figurative journey and even the smallest surprises keep you wanting to ride that train that they hop until the very end.

Note: At one point, a character talks about Michael Jackson having just died. I thought to myself, “hmm, I guess this movie is set in 2009.” It turns out, this film was released in 2010, it won two major awards at the Tokyo International Film Festival. I did not know this. This new release is for the 10th Anniversary.

Now available in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and Ireland on Amazon Prime Video, Vimeo on Demand, Hoopla, Viki and more at BuddhaMountainFilm.com