Lyle Sylvander<\/strong> to attend and provide the below film review.<\/em><\/p>\nZhang Yimou\u2019s<\/strong> new film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles<\/em> (the title hopefully sounds better in Mandarin) marks an anomaly in the great director\u2019s filmography:\u00a0 previously, Zhang\u2019s narratives concerned strong- willed women.\u00a0 His early collaboration with Gong Li<\/strong> (Red Sorghum<\/em>, Ju Dou<\/em>, To Live<\/em>, Raise the Red Lantern<\/em>) brought both of them international recognition \u2013- so much so that the two were inseparable.\u00a0\u00a0 When that partnership ended, he formed a new one with Zhang Ziyi<\/strong> in The Road Home<\/em> and the martial arts extravaganzas Hero<\/em> and House of Flying Daggers<\/em>.\u00a0 Even the films made in between \u2013- Not One Less<\/em> and Happy Times<\/em> \u2013- concerned female protagonists.\u00a0\u00a0 Riding Alone for Thousands<\/em> of Miles<\/em> is Zhang\u2019s first film to revolve around a male protagonist.\u00a0 In fact, Zhang seems to be seriously examining the notion of patriarchy or fatherhood \u2013- the female characters exist on the periphery while the plot involves not one, but two, father-son relationships.<\/p>\nPlaying the lead in Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles<\/em> is the famous Japanese actor Ken Takakura<\/strong>. Takakura has appeared in over 100 films during his lifetime, most famously for a series of yakuza<\/em> films during the 1960s and 1970s and the Hollywood film Black Rain<\/em> (1989).\u00a0 At one point, the Japanese media dubbed the hard-boiled actor the \u201cClint Eastwood of Japan.\u201d\u00a0 In Riding<\/em>, he plays Takada, a man who is estranged from his son Ken-ichi, who is dying of cancer.\u00a0 Takada travels from his seaside village to a Tokyo hospital but Ken-chi refuses to see him.\u00a0 When he learns that Ken-ichi had been studying a form of Chinese folk drama and that he had planned to visit China and videotape the singer Li<\/strong> Jiamin<\/strong>, he decides to undertake the project himself.\u00a0 When he arrives in China, he finds that Li Jiamin (a Chinese opera singer playing himself) is in jail and unable to sing.\u00a0\u00a0 Li is also estranged from his young son, who is just a child, and Takada\u2019s situation reminds him of his own.\u00a0\u00a0 Takada journeys to rural Yunnan Province to find Li\u2019s son and bring him to see his father.\u00a0 Takada\u2019s first journey is an attempt to bridge the gap between himself and his own son while the second journey is one between Li and his son.\u00a0\u00a0 Despite the title, Takada does not travel alone but with a comically inept translator played by Qiu Lin<\/strong>.\u00a0 Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles<\/em> refers to a song in the literary classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms<\/em> in which a general selflessly embarks on a long journey at his friend\u2019s bequest.<\/p>\nThe film naturally rests on the talents of Takakura and he does not disappoint.\u00a0 He displays a surface stoicism throughout yet exudes tenderness within.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a sublimely nuanced performance from a masterful actor.\u00a0 Yang Zhenbo<\/strong> is cute and charming as Li\u2019s son and he and Takura interact well even though neither speaks the other\u2019s language.<\/p>\nZhang has also directed his film with style and restraint, only giving in to excessive sentimentality in the final reel.\u00a0 Unlike his previous two films, Hero<\/em> and House of Flying Daggers<\/em>, Riding<\/em> employs a static camera throughout and dispenses with flashy color-coded systems.\u00a0 Cinematographer Xiaoding Zhao<\/strong> shoots the film in a subtle blue tinge and his compositions highlight the natural beauty of Yunnan Province.\u00a0 The understated composition and pacing of the film is more in line with refined Japanese art, along the lines of directors Yasujiro Ozu<\/strong> and Kenji Mizoguchi<\/strong>, rather than Zhang\u2019s usual epic scope. By doing so, this Chinese director acknowledges his own respect for the fathers of Japanese cinema.<\/p>\nAnd judging from the audible sobs in the house and the round of applause during the end credits, everyone in attendance had great respect for not only the film but Japan Society\u2019s wonderful event as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FILM REVIEW Premiere of RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES Hosted by the Japan Society Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) (Summer 2006 Issue of the JETAA NY Newsletter) On August 24, Japan Society hosted the New York premiere of the film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.\u00a0 Japan Society was kind enough to provide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":59,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-377","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PkZ7m-65","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/377\/revisions\/379"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}