After the international success of his martial arts epics Hero and House of Flying Daggers, director Yimou Zhang fires again with a more low-key film that harks back to his previous light-hearted dramas like Happy Times and The Road Home. If you're looking for another eyecandy Kung Fu film, you might want to wait for Yimou's third entry in his martial arts trilogy, Curse of the Golden Flower. This is a whole other animal.
Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles follows a Japanese fisherman named Gouichi Takata (Ken Takakura), who returns to Tokyo after many years to visit his hospitalized son Kenichi. They have not spoken to each other ever since Mr. Takata moved to a remote fishing village years ago. He is disappointed to find out that Kenichi still refuses to see him. Feeling bad, Kenichi's wife gives Mr. Takata a documentary Kenichi shot in China to help him understand what his son is like. The tape shows a folk opera, and an interview with the performer Li Jiamin, who made Kenichi promise that he would come back to China to see him perform the legendary song "Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles".
When Mr. Takata finds out that Kenichi's illness is terminal, he rashly flies to China to find this Li Jiamin and capture him performing the famous song on video. It proves to be a nearly impossible task, because Li Jiamin is serving a 3-year sentence in prison. Yet Mr. Takata refuses to give up, and feels that it's the last thing he has to do for his son before he dies. In a country so foreign to him, where he has a hard time communicating, Mr. Takata tackles one problem after another in his quest to film Li Jiamin -- with the help of the locals he meets, who are all touched by his story.
It's a very positive-minded film, where everybody helps others in need. The film might lose tension that way, because there's really no one trying to derail Mr. Takata's mission, but it makes way for a series of touching encounters that lets us know that it's not just pricks that occupy this world. In one scene, a man that Mr. Takata hired to be his guide returns his money, because he decided that he wants to help Mr. Takata out of his own goodwill. It's an uplifting film that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and queer inside.
Sounds cheesy? On paper, maybe; but the way the film unfolds is nothing short of magical. You really believe that these acts of kindness are the way this world revolves around. There is no antagonist in the film, because there is no need for one. It's not a film about triumphing adversaries. Who needs a villain when you have so many obstacles to overcome?
The film speaks volumes about the importance of communication. Mr. Takata and his son stopped talking to each other for years over a miscommunication. It cost them their relationship and filled them with regret. In China, Mr. Takata discovers that he has been taking his ability to communicate for granted. He's lost in a foreign country, unable to speak with anyone when he needed to the most. He's used to perceiving himself as a lonely and isolated individual, but only in this strange new land that he truly understands what it feels like.
When Yimou Zhang's previous movie Hero was released stateside, many Western critics accused it of being a propaganda film that promotes the reunification of Chinese countries, as suggested in the film's subtext. Even though Zhang himself has denied putting any political messages in his film. Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles shows that the director values the idea of peace and prosperity between people, Chinese or otherwise. Perhaps that was the message he was trying to convey in Hero, but was blurred by the history of the story and the negative interpretations that came from it. With this film, those values cannot be presented more clearly.
In an age where even children's films have grown more cynical, where innocence is accused of being naive; it's so unbelievably refreshing to see such a mature, positive, family friendly film that's neither preachy nor dumb. It's a rare breed.
"Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles" opens September 1, 2006 and is rated PG. Drama. Directed by Yasuo Furuhata, Yimou Zhang. Written by Yimou Zhang, Jingzhi Zou, Wang Bin. Starring Ken Nakamoto, Ken Takakura, Kiichi Nakai, Shinobu Terajima.
