In the Chinese film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, acclaimed director Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers; Hero) presents a compelling meditation on father-son relationships. With the aid of striking cinematography and acute characterizations, he reflects on the linguistic, emotional and cultural barriers that can foil one's best intentions.
In the movie, Gou-ichi (Ken Takakura), a gruff, dispassionate Japanese man living in a small fishing village, returns to Tokyo to make amends with his estranged, cancer-stricken son. When they fail to reconcile with one another, Gou-ichi resolves to make a monumental gesture of atonement by embarking on a revelatory journey: trekking through a remote Chinese province to track down a folk-opera performer who his son loved.
The film is aesthetically rewarding and offers some captivating images of Chinese provincial life in the modern age. At its best, Riding Alone is an effective vehicle for Zhang's bare, dead-on displays of human drama, and particularly the suffering derived from the smothering of emotions.
The film's eloquent simplicity is tainted, however, by some poor directorial choices. By injecting an awkward, heavy-handed voiceover, Gou-ichi too often tries to spell out the film's metaphors. And attempts at comic relief, mostly supplied by the incompetent interpreter "Lingo," don't translate well via subtitles - think Lost in Translation minus Bill Murray's droll asides.
Without reprieve from the ache and frustration of Gou-ichi's quest, English-speaking audiences have a more difficult ride to endure. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles met success in both China and Japan, but Zhang's story may not translate well enough to win over American audiences.
