Fridae

With his big-budget wuxia spectacles Hero and
House of Flying Daggers, Zhang Yimou was introduced to
mainstream audiences around the world. But those of us who loved
his work way before that might have preferred his more modest yet
intensely moving dramas like Raise the Red Lantern and
Not One Less.

His new film, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, sees
him returning to his roots as master director who's attuned to every
single nuance of the human emotion. Zhang came up with this remarkable
story with writers Zou Jingzhi and Wang Bin, about an old Japanese
fisherman (Ken Takakura) who receives news that his estranged son
has terminal cancer. Although the old man has not spoken to his
son for years, he goes to visits him at the hospital to seek reconciliation
but the latter stubbornly turns him away.

Before the son became ill, he was actively making documentaries
about mask operas in China, but could not complete an important
scene. So as a gesture of his love for his son, the old man decides
to travel to China to finish what his son had set out to do —
even though the old man has no knowledge of Chinese customs and
language.

And that, dear readers, makes up only one third of the heartrending
plot. The story continues on in a beautiful way, throwing up unexpected
twists and reversals. And when the ending finally comes, you may
find yourself weeping like a little girl lost trapped in an onion
farm.

Zhang proves that how adept he is at capturing raw human emotions
through his miraculous skills as a storyteller. We can't remember
the last time we were this moved and satisfied watching a simple
human drama about ordinary people making amends for the past. We
loved this movie more than any mega-budget, formula-bound spectacle
that Hollywood rolled out this summer. We think you might too.