An emotional odyssey to reunite fathers and sons

The evocative opening image of "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles" may strike some as too conspicuously beautiful, and these days you can't help but wonder, is it real or computer generated? But it's a perfect mood-setter for a film about a lonely Japanese father seeking reconciliation with his dying son. By the time director Zhang Yimou bookends the film with the same image (in quiet contrast to his previous "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers"), you may find yourself on the verge of tears.

Whoever said sentiment had to be saccharine? In broad strokes, "Riding Alone" resembles "The Wizard of Oz," but where Dorothy yearned for somewhere over the rainbow, this exquisitely nuanced drama finds Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura, in a role written specifically for him) yearning for closeness with his estranged son Ken-ichi (Kiichi Nakai), now dying of cancer and wanting nothing to do with his father, for reasons never fully explained.

Movie review

Showtimes and trailer

"Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," with Ken Takakura, Qiu Lin, Yang Zhenbo, Li Jiamin. Directed by Zhang Yimou, from a screenplay by Zou Jingzhi. 108 minutes. Rated PG for mild thematic elements. In Japanese and Mandarin with English subtitles. Metro.

Takata sets off to China's Yunnan Province to videotape a performance of "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," a rural opera starring now-imprisoned villager Li Jiamin (playing himself) that Ken-ichi had wanted to videotape before illness forced his return to Japan.

Visiting Li in prison with the help of a friendly, semi-competent interpreter named Lingo (Qui Lin), Takata agrees to locate Li's own estranged son, 8-year-old Yang Yang (Yang Zhenbo), and "Riding Alone" becomes an emotional odyssey in which unspoken yearnings accumulate with heartbreaking emotional impact.

Ever the humanist, Zhang directs in the universal language of gesture and expression, drawing a quiet, distinguished performance from Takakura that surely ranks as one of the finest of his career.

As a sad yet joyful celebration of cultural exchange, "Riding Alone" plays like a small miracle, unfolding in a world as it ought to be, where even prison guards have warm reserves of compassion.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net