A Ride of Life-time

It has been almost a fortnight since i published anything in my blog. The last of the posting is a story of mine that has received lukewarm response from the readers, that is if at all there are readers who are serious about any kind of writing. I do not demean any effort of anyone in getting their comments registered for my write ups. As a writer, i long to be commented, criticised or even ridiculed at, berated at and so on and so forth. By the way, this is not i intend to write now. I have spent the whole of the past two weeks in doing something pretty much academic with my colleagues. I have had no free time to do the thing i like the most; reading and wathcing films. My colleague in the Department of Tamil, Rathinakumar, gave me two compact discs of two films. He has a very fine collection of world movies and has been kind enough to give a glimpse of his collection to me for tasting his broth. I am now going to write about the three movies that i have seen this weekend. Two are his contribution and one is mine.

'Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles' is the name of the Japanese film released in 2004. The year of the release is only a surmice, as the sub-titles of the film do not deprive of the makers, actors, production crew or anyone for that matter, who has associated with the movie. The film opens with an old man staring at sea with dismay. He is Takata, who has moved to this fishing sea-shore small town after the death of his wife. He has a son, who chooses to live in Tokyo. The son, Ken-ichi, is a teacher in Oriental folk-arts and is published much in that field. He travels a lot to China to record the native opera performed in villages. The opera is popular in the Yunnan Province of China. Takata is unhappy as the relationship between him and his son has strained greatly after his immigration to the fishing hamlet. He is not much in contact with his son and his daughter in law. The daughter in law, Rye, sends an invitation to him to visit Tokyo. The reason is that the son is ill, suffering from severe stomach pain, and is admitted to hospital. The invitation is not approved by Ken-ichi and he refuses to admit his father into the room. Rye consoles the father and gives a video cassette that Ken has recorded. The father comes back to his native town and watches the tape, which contains a recorded programme of the Chinese dance form. In it the son talks to a performer, named Li, who assures a fine performance of the story of Lord Guan, who travelled thousands of miles to save his friend: 'Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles', the next year. Ken is ill and cannot travel to China.

Takata wants to do something for his son. He visits China's Yunnan Province without letting his daughter in law know of his visit. He catches hold of an interpreter, Jasmine and tries to film the performance of the story of Lord Guan's travelling. As it is about to happen, Lingo, a local quack interpreter tells him that the actor is different and not Li, as Li has been jailed for the crime of an assault for three years. Takata does not want any other person performing it. He decides to take the matters to the judicial system, which refuses it on the grounds that a foreigner is never allowed, apart from foreign correspondents, inside to film anything. Takata does not lose hope and sends a video cassette describing the condition of his son, who is afterwards diagnosed with cancer in liver, who is known to the authorities, as he visited quite regularly and stayed in the villages alone for many days. Takata is given permission. However, Li breaks down and cannot perform the role, as he is thinking about his eight year old son, Yang yang, born out of the union of him and his wife.

Takata decides to visit the stone village, that is very far away from the prison and bring his son to the prison. The trip to the village makes him understand about the people of the village who are the sole guardians of Yang yang as he already lost his mother. They hold a community feast in honour of him and decide to send the boy with him. In the mean time, Ken has relented and is much moved to know about his father's intentions and wishes him to come back to Tokyo immediately. Takata is conveyed of this by Rye. Takata has forced himself in a situation that he has generated personal interest in him to film the opera. On the way to the prison, the boy escapes and spends a night or two with Takata. The villagers do manage to find them and Takata firmly wants to know from the boy that whether he is really interested in seeing his dad. The boy answers negatively and Takata leaves the boy after getting assurance from the villagers that they would do take care the boy. He still does not lose hope and decides to go to prison to find whether Li is in a good mood to perform the opera. On his way to prison, he is informed of the death of his son and a letter of him is also read out. He goes to prison and shows pictures of Yang yang to Li and expresses no interest in filming the opera. Li requests him that he would do well and dedicate the opera to Ken, who is his friend, and Takata would show the performance to him. The film ends with the performance of the opera.


The second film is 'Divided We Fall' by a Russian director Jan Hrebejk. Many films have been made for years using the second world war happenings as the back drop. Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator', that is the other movie i saw this weekend, tries to visualise, rather mockingly, the dictator in a hectic robe of activities. Chaplin's portrait of the dictator Hynkel, that is very much modelled on Hitler, is highly comical as he tries to parody the serious activities that Hitler was credited with in involving himself.

The present film by the Russians was released in 2000, and is about a Czech family that was living in Russia or i think in Czech, during the time of the second world war. The film is such a fine blend of family drama and historic holocaust. The first six minutes of the film depicts six years between 1937 and 1943. The remaining one hundred and fourteen minutes depict the happenings from 1943 to 1945. Josef and Marie are a childless couple. Josef is employed in the firm of a Jewish businessman. As the film opens, the audiences are shown the happy gathering of all races. The Jewish family moves to a concentration camp and its whereabouts are not known. David, the son of the Jewish businessman returns after two years, by escaping from a camp set up by Nazis on Polish soil. Josef helps him to escape with a friend to another of the destination, that miserably fails as the friend does not turn up at the agreed on spot. Josef decides to keep David, who tells him that his family members would have died by now, in his house without the knowledge of the Fuhrer's men. He has a, rather, snooping friend Hurst, who often scampers into Josef's house in a surprise of alarming degrees. He senses the arrival of David and tries to find it out. Josef gets a job in Hitler's administration. He also visits doctors in the prospect of fathering children.

On one occasion, while Josef is meeting the doctor, Hurst tries to rape Marie. Marie kicks him and walks her way home from the place of the incident. The doctor gives out a shocking news that Josef could never father a child. In the meantime, Hurst wants to take revenge on Marie and brings a widower German officer to stay with the couple. Marie turns down the request by informing him that she is pregnant and the couple needs the small room for the child. Josef is now caught in a Catch-22 situation. He cannot father but needs a child for being spared from the gallows. He requests Marie, who loves only her husband, to bear a child through David. After much coaxing, David agrees. As Marie nears her delivery time, the Hitler's regime is rooted out and Josef finds himself in a quandary, as he is accused of supporting Germans and he proves that he is friendly with Jews by revealing the secret behind the birth, and before being comforted with the birth of the child. The film ends with the proud father Josef walking his pram with his child, a male child.