Last Week at the Movies - May 21

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, China 2005
Drama. A father, who’s been estranged from his adult son for years, discovers that this son is dying from advanced cancer. Even in the hospital, the son Kenichi refuses to see his father. The father learns that Kenichi is very interested in Chinese folk operas and, after watching one of Kenichi’s documentaries, decides to go to Stone Village in Yunnan Province to film a particular singer in which he thought Kenichi was very interested. For the stoic, unemotional father, this was his unspoken gesture to his son to show he cared and loved him. The journey is fraught with obstacles - the singer is incarcerated, the father has a bad translator, the journey to a distant village to secure the singer’s newfound son and the father and the boy getting lost in some caverns. Ultimately, Kenichi succumbs to his disease but he leaves a final note who’s wife reads to the father over the cellphone.

The title refers to the name of a Chinese folk opera derived from the story, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Zhang Yimou returns to his quiet, pensive storytelling of human relationships in rural China, this time between an outsider (the father), his son and the people with whom the father crosses paths. And instead of coming up against hard-nosed, unbending bureaucrats, the father finds compassion and willing assistance. This one’s touching and somewhat of a tearjerker. The Twilight Samurai, Japan 2002
Drama. Another relationship movie of sorts – a humble samurai relating with his status, with his family, with his woman love and, finally with his duty. Sebei is a petty samurai who’s not on the battlefield but working as a low-paid retainer (accounting and inventory?). He’s actually accepted his lot and cherishes his time with his two young daughters and witless mother after his wife’s death from an illness. He hasn’t taken another wife because he fears she’d eventually resent him and their low status, even though he desperately needs some assistance at home with the caregiving and household work. A childhood friend, Miss Tomoe, whom he’s love since they were young, returns in his life after she’d divorced. His short-sword fighting skills and teaching background are discovered by the clan leaders and they enlist him to help put down an opponent. He agrees after much pressure and because he’s reassured that his family would be taken care of in the event he were to fail on this mission.

I thought this would be a clichéd story about the samurai who wants to quit fighting but is dragged back into the game. And this is basically what it was although with a lot less fighting. This was an intimate film about a man who’s satisfied with and settled in his quiet life and prefers it exactly the way it is over the cold-blooded horrors he’d experienced while being an active samurai, which he described as requiring one to think like an animal to be able to carry out the horrendous acts of cutting men down. This was quite beautifully done and very effecting. Recommended.

All in all, this was an entertaining movie. The animation was wondrous, right down to the lint balls on Shrek's shirt. There are so many parties involved this time around that none of the characters are given much time to shine. Fiona, Donkey and Puss in Boots all have smaller roles, while Arthur takes the front seat as practically the second lead character.

There are a lot of pop culture and movie references and I’m sure I missed many of them, but I didn’t miss the ones of Lord of the Rings, Charlie’s Angels, Pulp Fiction and Pirates of the Caribbean. There were a few funny bits that older kids would understand better than the younger kiddies, such as Pinocchio’s use of double, triple and quadruple negatives when he’s being questioned by Prince Charming on Shrek’s whereabouts and Merlin’s speedy line readings and meanings probably goes over the head of most of the young-young set.

The sappy message about believing in yourself is nice and there wasn’t too much sermonizing. Perhaps this third ride packed less punch than the first two but I still enjoyed myself.