Riding Alone for Thousand
of Miles is a movie
that flows peacefully and is well-balanced, just as the main character Gou-ichi
Takata (played by Ken Takakura) faces the problems of life.
There are many important things being told to the spectator in the film,
hidden behind the simplicity of forms used to narrate the storyline. It tells
about family relations, about bonds broken and remade, about communication,
between human beings and between cultures (Chinese-Japanese) and about the loss
of communication (from a father and a son who have not met for decades to the loss
of phone coverage in a remote Chinese village).
Director Zhang Yimou, who became internationally recognized with
his previous film House of Flying Daggers, completes a circle here; such
a recurrent figure when we come to think about Asian philosophy. He is able to
transport us from the simplest things of life, to the most complicated
feelings, and then back to simplicity reflected in the pure eyes of a child.
And all that with an exquisite respect for the culture, traditions and relations
of the two most powerful Asian tigers.
I enjoyed the redemption pilgrimage of Mr. Takata through the land of China, because it makes us just take a
look to some of the most important features that we have left in this life to
be considered human beings: forgiveness and love.