Customer Reviews

Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles

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There are a half dozen films that can change your life after one viewing. I felt this was such a masterpiece. A Japanese father who has learned to control his emotions discovers that his estranged son is dying of cancer. When he goes to the hospital room, the son won't let him stay. Yet the wife of the son is trying to reconcile father and son and lets it be known that the son adores classical Chinese opera.

Seeking a crack in which to connect emotionally with his son, the father then goes to China - where he does not speak the language - and seeks out a Chinese opera star so that he can film a production of "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles." Unfortunately, the opera star is now in jail, but that does not stop the father from trying to film the production in Chinese prison. The father's desperate struggle to do one last thing to connect with his son - a true act of love - transforms all who begin to come into contact with him...and in old age, the father learns the value of openness in emotions that had been so bottled up before.

Altogether, a wonderful film experience. Truly, I was shaken emotionally.

Zhang Yimou's Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles is a brilliant portrayal of the love that a father has for his child. Zhang uses the character of Takata to fuel this portrayal. Takata has such a profound inability to communicate with his son that he uses his daughter-in-law as a de-facto "interpreter" between himself and his child. During these "interpretations", Takata discovers that his son had promised to film a Chinese opera singer playing his most famous role. As an attempt at reconciliation, Takata goes to China to finish this task for his son, who is dying of cancer. In going to China, Takata seems to face an insurmountable obstacle: a foreign country where a different language is spoken. However, in a clever twist, this obstacle actually turns out to be an advantage for Takata, because he is used to dealing in an environment where he is unable to converse with others. Takata uses the skills he's developed to compensate for his communication deficiencies in order to find the person his son wished to film. When that person displays some relationship challenges with his own son, Takata takes it on himself to establish a connection between the opera singer and his child. In doing so, Takata finally establishes a bridge between himself and his own son.

While the story itself is intriguing, it wouldn't work without amazing acting from all the cast (particularly Ken Takakura as Takata), stunning cinematography, and a lyrical script. All of these elements are present in Zhang's other films, like Hero and Curse of the Golden Flower. It's a clear measure of Zhang's talent that he is able to abandon the historic epic form of those other movies and instead utilize these elements to create an intimate, emotional portrait.

Some viewers may be reluctant to view Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles because all of the dialogue is in Chinese. However, the movie (like its protagonist) transcends language to movingly convey its core emotions. It's rare to find a moving portrayal of such basic emotions in any language, much less a portrayal that is also entertaining. For that reason alone, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles is a film that deserves a large audience.

A stony, serious man Takata has spent the last ten years of his life living and working in a small coastal town as a fisherman. Seemingly content, he lives a solitary life. However, Takata's quiet life is given a shock when his daughter-in-law calls him and informs him that his son is sick and in the hospital. Takata rushes to Tokyo to see his son whom he has not spoken to for over ten years after a falling out between the two. When he arrives at the hospital, Rie, his daughter-in-law, informs him that his son does not know that he was coming and his son who refuses to see him soon turns him away. Distraught, Rie gives Takata a video of traditional Chinese dancing that Kenichi filmed in Yunnan.

After he has returned home, Takata watches the video and learns of his son's, an arts professor at the University of Tokyo, love of Chinese Dancing. In the video Kenichi interviews a man named Li who is able to perform a difficult piece called "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", but because he is sick he is unable to perform the piece that day, so he invites Kenichi to come watch him perform the piece the following year.

A short time later, Rie calls Takata and informs him that Kenichi has stomach cancer and that the disease is terminal. In order to become closer to his son Takata travels to China to film Li performing "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," but he soon learns that Li is imprisoned for stabbing a man. His translator Jasmine wants him to return home, but Takata is determined to film the piece. With the aid of Lingo, a nice fellow who speaks to Takata in a mixture of broken English and Chinese, Takata through some extreme measures is finally able to see Li perform, but Li is unable to perform because he wants to see his young son whose existence he has only known of for a short time. Although Jasmine and Lingo want him to go home and although Rie wants him to return as well, Takata is determined to fetch Li's son Yang Yang and bring him to Li in order for him to be able to film the performance. However, Takata, in the end, is able to gain much more than what he originally set out for.

Famous for his portrayals of gangsters and cowboys, the deadpan Takakura Ken strikes an opposing figure even at the age of seventy-four, stone silent throughout most of the film, most of Takakura's words are through internal dialogue through which he enlightens the audience on such topics as his own difficulties expressing emotion and the ways in which he is moved by the kindness of the Chinese people and the Chinese people's willingness to express emotion which is very unlike the Japanese. Takakura's character in fact has so much trouble expressing his emotions that he has to talk through a video camera to an official in order to get his feelings across. Takakura's glacially cool performance is truly able to move audience when cracks appear in his hard exterior. Moments such as when he smiles at Yang Yang or when his tears flow in the video truly tug at the heartstrings.

While Riding Along for Thousands of Miles might not be a hard hitting social commentary in the same vein as To Live, Not One Less, or the Story of Qiu Ju, it is still quite a good film especially for the fact that Zhang centers the film around Japanese characters in a time in which relations with Japan are at their worst in quite a number of years.

After a solid start with a remarkable series of films in the early 1990's, Zhang Yimou has lately become something like the Martin Scorsese of Chinese cinema. For every character-rich, personal film he makes--the kind of film that made him a household name--he now mounts two or three big, action-packed epics tailored for maximum commercial success. Happily, RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES, is of the former variety.

Ken Takakura is a quiet force of nature as he struggles to take unexpected and often inscrutable steps to atone for unnamed offenses against his estranged son, now dying of liver cancer. This leads him on a quixotic journey to remote parts of China. His character, Takata, attempts to videotape a masked performance that is missing from his son's cherished collection of Chinese folk operas. The plot, simplified, is this: "one thing leads to another . . . ." In other words, this is a road movie, purely but not ever simply.

It is a melancholy film, but one with moments of deep comic relief. Takata is left to the devices of a tour guide and "translator," Lingo, whose broken Japanese is so mixed up with his broken English as to make him virtually useless. When language barriers arise (as they constantly do), Takata must phone his original translator, Jasmine, who had to bow out when the quest ran into obstacles. At one point, Takata and Lingo find themselves in a remote village, where they have encountered an apparent impasse with the village elders. When Lingo is unable to translate the villagers' wishes to Takata, there is a hilarious parade of the entire party, up the steps of the terraced village to the highest rooftop--the only place in town where there is a cell phone signal.

This kind of story, where the narrative walks a razor's edge between sentimentality and earned emotion, requires a sure hand at camera placement. In this respect, Zhang, who started out as a cinematographer under Chen Kaige, is one of the most assured directors alive. His close-ups occur mainly on Takakura, whose face is all restrained pain. With the exception of two (related) scenes of explosive emotion, the camera tends to move away and give the characters--and audience--a respectful distance.

This Sony Pictures DVD boasts an ultra-crisp image to complement the perfectly executed photography. Set mostly in Yunnan Province, with its rolling green moon-scapes and forests of vertical rock formations, RIDING ALONE might have been a series of postcards in the hands of another director. But unlike the candy-colored cinematography of Zhang's most recent three action epics, the reds, greens, and browns that make up almost the entire color palette are muted with just enough gray to keep one's attention on the characters, not the backdrop.

Like Zhang's film NOT ONE LESS (1999), this is a story of an insular character who thrusts himself out into the wide world and finds that values follow actions. Takata, a near-recluse at the start, finds faith, friendship, compassion and forgiveness in his journey. It is a rare privilege to take that journey with him.

Zhang Yimou once again shows us his background as a cinematographer. He uses muted colors for the scenes in Japan where the characters, except the son's wife (a very promising up-and-coming actress in Japan, full of emotive capabilities), have bottled up emotions. Then uses bright, saturated colors (infrequently overexposed) in China when the father is learning about showing emotions and showing emotion.
When traveling in China you hear about all of the freedom Mr. Zhang has to do whatever project nowadays as he is praised on CTV regularly, but it is still amazing that he was allowed to do so much in a prison.
Once again as in "Not One Less" he has shown that he gets to the heart of the story better without using an expensive cast of professional actors with big names. I think this saves him having to battle with professional actors about the acting craft that they "know so much about" and the roles come off the way he wants them to.
I think Mr. Takakura (a tried and true Japanese actor) did an excellent job as a foreigner in China and the film depicted realistically the difficulties of being a foreigner traveling in China. That is once again to the lattitude that Mr. Zhang is allowed currently and I want to thank him for his honesty because most Chinese do not recognize the difficulties of being a foreigner in China. Chinese people want to be good hosts but they also do not feel they should go beyond the status quo due to societal traditions.
It is Chinese tradition that there is heroic death and heroic recognition that moves others to become better. That is what has made their tradition of literature and film so rewarding in that one comes away with a feeling of improving one's self by completing the story and wanting to become better.

Director Zhang Yimou has given a masterpiece of a film in this wonderful film of a fathers reconciliation towards his dying son. "Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles," is a film I enjoyed immensely. If your looking for fast action, chase scenes or complicated plots, forget it. This is a slowed paced drama, which I found incredibly worth the watch. I loved every moment of this film. Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura) has just received word from his daughter-in-law that Mr. Takata's son Kenichi, is in the hospital. Mr. Takata has been estranged from his son for many years. When he arrives at the hospital, he waits outside his sons room and learns that his son does not want to see him. We never know what had transpired between the two, other than Mr. Takata later saying in the film that he wronged his son.

When Mr. Takata is given a VHS copy of his sons work, he discovers that his son has a passion for rural Chinese folk opera. One of these he discovers on the film is titled "Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles." Apparently, the singer Li Jiamin (Playing himself) does not want to give a performance to his son Kenichi, as he has a cold. Therefore, he invites Kenichi to come to Yunnan province in China, where he will perform this for him. Kenichi takes him up on his offer. However, the father Mr. Takata learns from his daughter-in law, Rie, that his sons illness is terminal: Kenichi has cancer of the liver.

Trying to make amends for his past, Mr. Takata decides to go to China, seek out Li Jiamin, and record this play for his son--since his son cannot go himself. This is where the film takes us on a great journey of self discovery. Jasmine, a Japanese translator of Chinese, informs the father that Li Jiamin has been sentenced to three years prison. Going to extreme lengths, the father vows to do what he can to video record the performance in prison. Moreover, he must get permission from various bureaucratic agencies in China. I really liked the interaction between the Chinese characters and Mr. Takata. Especially the character Lingo (Lin Qiu) whose Japanese is not really that good.

There are funny scenes with Lingo and the Chinese characters in the film who believe Lingo does not have a good grasp, if any at all, of the Japanese language. With this, Mr. Takata is always in constant cellphone contact with the translator Jasmine, who must decipher what the Chinese officials and citizenry relate to Mr. Takata. As Mr. Takata eventually is given permission to video the performance in prison, he discovers that Li Jiamin will not perform until he sees his son. A son that he too is estranged from. Their are some breath-taking scenes of China, which reminded me of Takashi Mike's film "The Bird People Of China." Mr. Takata likes the way the Chinese interact with each other; sharing their joys and arguments in front of everyone--hiding nothing, and totally open. He finds this to be truly honest, and feels shame that he cannot feel the same too: But he does admire them for this.

Further, the films narrative takes the viewer on another story as well. The story of Yang Yang, the son of Li Jiamin. We see that Mr. Takata bonds with the boy, and tries to understand this young boy too. Maybe, he is reminiscing about his son when he was a child? Maybe something he failed to do as a father? Whatever the case, Mr. Takata is deeply moved by this young boy and his relationship to his father. This is a very good drama. It is not for everyone, but everyone should view it sometime in their life. It is highly recommended. I own the film, but recommend that others rent the film first, as it is a slow drama that may not resonate with others. I am biased in the fact that I really like this film a lot. Therefore, rent it first.

Getting into the human equation and away from acrobatic flying daggers, director Yimou Zhang spins solid gold in his latest film, RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES.

Set against the stunningly picturesque Yunnan Province in southwestern China, Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura) leaves his beloved Japanese fishing village to travel thousands of miles and finish video recording a famous Chinese folk opera for his dying son.

Mr. Takata and his son have become distant since the death of Mr. Takata's wife, not speaking to one another for years. When word comes to him that his son, Ken-ichi, is in the hospital, Mr. Takata races to the city only to be rebuffed by his son's bitterness. Mr. Takata never sees his Ken-ichi, but his son's wife, Rie (Shinobu Terajima), tells Mr. Takata an interesting story about his love of Chinese folk dancing. She hands him an unfinished tape of Ken-ichi's work and, after watching it, Mr. Takata decides to finish the recording. "Not being good with people," Mr. Takata immediately encounters problems when he enters China. But he learns quickly, and finds humility within himself in order to finish the tape.

Mr. Takata knew that his son wanted to film one particular opera (also called Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles) sung by one particular Chinese man named Li. But Li is in prison after stabbing a man. Getting permission to film Li performing the folk dance from the government higher-ups becomes one of Mr. Takata's earliest obstacles. Then, after gaining access, Mr. Li has a meltdown, thinking about his own distant son. Emotional beyond repair, Mr. Li is unable to dance for Mr. Takata. So Mr. Takata leaves to come back another day ...but an idea is sparked in his head.

Mr. Takata goes to "The Stone Village" to see if he can convince Mr. Li's five-year-old son to come back with him to the prison so that he can visit. What follows is one of the most emotionally impacting moments in Chinese film history. Unable to be close to his own son, Mr. Takata transfers much of his emotional heft onto young Yang Yang (Mr. Li's son), and audiences will no doubt spill plenty of tears as this happens.

The beauty of the surrounding countryside in the Yunnan Province is an awesome spectacle to behold; a backdrop that towers in all its majesty.

Ken Takakura deserves Oscar mention for his quiet yet powerful (and heartbreaking) role as the conflicted and determined Mr. Takata.

All of the other actors are not actors, though. They are ordinary people picked by the director for their appearances and mannerisms; excellently done by the way. There's little doubt most will know that none of them have acting experience unless DVD watchers click on the extra features.

A brilliantly done foreign film that proves director Yimou Zhang isn't just an action freak.

Bored with the routine father-bashing from Hollywood? Want to see a film that actually values instead of devalues fatherhood? Had enough of the same old predictable man=bad/perpetrator woman=good/victim PC dogma? Want to see a film where fathers are human, humane, and important to children?

If so, this is a nice change, like fresh air that would never make it through the Hollywood PC agenda filters. It's very ironic that a Communist country allows the telling of a story that would be self-censored in most western nations.

My only complaint is that the subtitles are often the same color as the background, sometimes making them hard to read, but the acting is good enough such that you don't seem to miss much.

a simple yet wonderful story. typical zhang's trade mark that only one word serves him well: WOW!
the great zhang, perhaps the greatest modern day chinese director, should abandon his quests for ancient chinese wu-xia genre (anything related to the chinese martial art) and return to the grass root of modern day china. because all of his tryings in 'hero', 'house of flying daggers', 'curse of the golden flowers' have estranged and distant him from the audience. these films never could successfully touch or move the audience. those cgi, those computerized special effects, those exaggerated costumes and settings are nothing but.... but almost all of his other products, as long as it got nothing to do with the ancient or martial art backgrounded stories are deeply moving and realistically wonderful, this 'riding alone for thousands of miles', just like his 'the road home' and 'not one less' are the reason why we look up to him as the greatest modern day chinese director. please come back to the grass root china, please.

Although renowned Fifth Generation director Zhang Yimou has recently demonstrated strong predilections for stunningly florid and large scale martial arts epics, his recent RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES returns him to the humbler type of cinematic canvas he employed earlier in NOT ONE LESS, JU DOU, THE ROAD HOME, and THE STORY OF QIU JU. Here he returns to the simple story of a small group of individuals. There's the father, Takata Gouichi, estranged from his son Kenichi, the son Kenichi afflicted with liver cancer, the daughter-in-law Rie trying to mend fences before it's too late, and a Chinese mask opera performer Li Jiamin, differently but equally estranged from his son Yang Yang by having been sentenced to three years in prison for a moment's rage in defending his infant son. Orbiting this central constellation are the tour guide Jasmine, the sincere but inept translator Lingo, a provincial politician named Director Li, a prison warden Chen, the chief of Li Jiamin's home village, and a small cast of rural villagers who create a welcoming atmosphere for Mr. Takata as well as being the proverbial village that it takes to raise Yang Yang in his father's absence.

On its face, the title RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES refers to a regional mask opera for which Li Jiamin claims he is the country's greatest performer. On an earlier visit to China before his illness, Mr. Takata's son Kenichi had visited Yunnan Province and filmed Mr. Li performing a different opera. Kenichi is not only a Chinese opera aficionado, he is also a documentarian for Japanese television. Kenichi would like to film Li performing the Lord Guan character in Riding Alone, but Kenichi cannot stay any longer and Li is not feeling well enough. Kenichi promises to return the following year, but his illness renders him hospitalized. It is his father, Mr. Takata, who decides to film the opera and return with the tape to Japan, an act of reconciliation and perhaps the granting of his dying son's final wish. A series of bureaucratic trials, coupled with the realization of Li Jiamin's relationship with his five-year-old son and his own unexpected bonding with the little boy, leads the elder Takata finally to see the truth in his own father-son relationship.

At another level, RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES echoes the themes of Lord Guan's epic story as told in the classic Chinese novel, ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. Lord Guan was a famous and heroic general during a time when China was not yet united as a single country - he is perceived in Chinese legend as a paragon of loyalty to his sworn brothers and a model of righteousness. The "Riding Alone" title refers to a story within ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS wherein Lord Guan undergoes numerous hardships and trials over a long journey to reach his sworn brother Liu Bei. The parallels with Mr. Takata's journey to Yunnan Province to film Li Jiamin are obvious if rather less bloody and militaristic.

In this movie, Zhang Yimou returns to his previous method in NOT ONE LESS of choosing for major roles local people who are not career actors. Remarkably, he preserves their authenticity while still managing to derive compelling performances from them. As he did with the master of the house in RAISE THE RED LANTERN, Mr. Zhang also returns to the device of never once showing one of his main characters - Kenichi in this case. The effect is powerful - we as viewers do not know the adult Kenichi any better than his father.

While the sweep of this story is far reduced in comparison to HERO and CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, make no mistake about Mr. Zhang's cinematic touch. In place of hordes of attacking soldiers and sky-darkening waves of arrows, Mr. Zhang uses the visual grandeur of the Yunnan Province countryside to achieve his dramatic effects. And, as usual, Mr. Zhang demonstrates once again that he is without doubt the modern cinema's unsurpassed master of light and color.

For the first time, Mr. Zhang reaches out from his natural Chinese environs to include a Japanese perspective. Through the character of Mr. Takata, Director Zhang offers his perspective on Japanese culture while simultaneously viewing Chinese culture and life through perhaps overly sympathetic Japanese eyes. There is certainly room to be critical of Mr. Zhang's soft-pedaled portrayal of the Chinese prison system and the improbably cooperative cadres, as well as his romanticized depiction - bordering on Party propoganda - of rural country life and the peasants who live there. Nevertheless, he shows once again that he is a master craftsman and a true artist in painting large, life affirming tales on the smallest of canvases. Those looking for an epic or martial arts extravaganza should look elsewhere, but those who relish universal stories and themes drawn from the tribulations of a few average lives will find joy in RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES. One scene in the prison will surely draw tears from even the hardest of viewer hearts, just as it did from the prisoners in the scene itself.