(China/Japan, 2005, Mandarin and Japanese w/ES)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Written by playwright/poet Zou Jingzhi, this Chinese-Japanese film explores father-son ties and Japanese-Chinese relations in the story of Gouichi Takata (Ken Takakura). After his estranged filmmaker son is diagnosed with cancer, Takata travels to China on a quest: to mend their relationship by continuing his son’s work filming a Chinese Nuo opera, "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," about loyalty between men. As he seeks the actor his son had hoped to film, Takata becomes obsessed with reuniting that actor and the actor's young son. The opera’s story of martial friendship and loyalty and Takata's quest both bring insight into father-son love, particularly in a society where speaking is hard but affection is deep. We visit Chinese prisons and high mountain villages as the Japanese "outsider" sees into an unfamiliar world. Takata’s travel of a thousand miles allows him to come home to self and his own family.
