Director: Zhang Yi Mou
Cast: Ken Takakura, Kiichi Nakai, Jiang Wen

Synopsis
The story follows a father into China to fulfill a wish of his dying son ...

My thoughts

-- wow ... i think it is well scripted and acted ... the performance by the ENTIRE cast is commendable ... the show depicts the relationship among people very well (be it between father and son, between friends, between strangers, etc) ... 

it highlights the old's (and even the young's) non revelation of feelings (i.e., often we feel more than we show); it notes that people often role play, behind some kind of masks/facades; it depicts "imprisonment" and "reformation", etc ...

it relates loneliness (but also love), it deals with uncertainty and the unknown (but also some predictability of humanity), it deals with the harshness of life (but also the tenderness of mankind), finally, it hints at cross cultural similarity and harmony (amidst diversity) ...

in essence, the film has a lot of nuances, subtleties and parallels (although i think the director has decided to "explicitly" say out some of them so that mainstream audience can "see" the parallels immediately ... * slight pity *) ... 

-- in terms of cinematography, i especially like those scenes where Ken is at the seaside ... wow ... watch for the "sunrays" (kind of obscure but definitely there ...)

also, the scenes at Japan are well framed and beautiful ... credits to the crew in Japan

so, go watch it on a BIG SCREEN!!!
once again, thnks to The PictureHouse 

-- the film should captivate BOTH artsy and mainstream audience ... because it has BOTH tears and laughters ... (even though it is slightly on the artsy side)

the title "riding alone for thousands of miles" come from the story of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and it relates how one would go all the way to help a friend ...


Conclusion
Highly recommended ... 

PS: hurry international distriubutors, pick it up ... 
* i am really not related to the film makers in anyway ... 
ha ha ha *