Review of Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles

To be brutally honest, I have to confess that I spent a good part of this movie struggling not to succumb to the temptation to fall asleep. Director Yimou Zhang makes a deliberate attempt to tug on the viewers' heart strings with "Riding Alone" but aside from a handful of scenes near the end of the movie (particularly those that portrayed the relationship between Takata and Yang Yang) I can't say that I found myself especially moved. The story is about a Japanese man (Takata) whose son (Rie) is gravely ill in a Tokyo hospital. The two have been estranged for years and when Takata visits Rie in the hospital, Rie refuses to see him. Takata, however, takes home a video given to him by Rie's wife, which gives Takata a greater understanding of his son's dreams, and compels him to travel to Yunnan Province in China to fulfil one of those dreams. For whatever reason, this movie just didn't make a connection with me. The scenes set inside the Chinese prison particularly struck me as being very unlikely. I have difficulty believing that conditions in that environment would be so welcoming to a foreigner and so apparently comfortable for the inmates.The last half hour or so wasn't bad but I have to say that I had a lot of difficulty making it that far. 2/10