Next up in Liam J Madden’s reviews of films available at Island libraries is Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, a film directed by Zhang Yimou. Don’t forget that renting DVDs from Island libraries costs just at only 49p for children and 98p for adults. Ed
Simplicity leads to calmness and the simplest ideas are at times the best.
For a film that offers a view of Japan in a rather different light and a story that does make a serious attempt at revealing China as wondrous land, Ventnor Library has managed to cross the boundaries of time and space to inspire and indeed show Zhang Yimou as one of the more profound directors to emerge from China.
The scope of depth achieved through following a Father’s journey to China is immense.
This film seems to start and then gradually grows, in much the same way that travelling does indeed broaden the mind.
In a similar way to Kieslowski, Yimou directs the film to not only tell the story, but offer some handy tips on how to survive through grief, loss and solitude.
On the surface, it’s an opportunity to view two different provinces of China that are both enchanting and perilous.
Yet there is just a hint of understanding of the momentous good that can be achieved by a simple thought or action.
A great deal about simplicity, is that it’s light and durable and lasts for an extremely long time.
Conversations that I’ve had when travelling across parts of this glorious planet have been very similar to this extraordinary film.
It is a firmly held belief by quite a few people that the point of the journey is to get back to where you started, Zhang Yimou has achieved such a point with this story and has also managed to arrive. In 1988 he reviewed his first film ‘The Last Emperor’. Liam J. Madden once attended the after wedding of Stephen Hawking outside Cambridge University by complete accident and he would like to apologise for getting in the frame when the Professor had his wedding photographs taken.
He drinks latte and reviews Dvd’s for the Ventnor Library and is currently writing a continuation to his novel ‘SAVE CHANGES’ – which explores the enlightening problems manifested by time-pollution.
Reviewer profile
Writer, artist, journalist and graphic designer, Liam J Madden left the Isle of Wight at the age of 17 and attended Southampton Institute from 1985-1987.
