Kora

转山

China/Taiwan, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 89 mins.

Director: Du Jiayi 杜家毅.

Rating: 7/10.

Engrossing two-wheel road/survival movie set in the wilds of Yunnan and Tibet provinces.

STORY

Taibei, Taiwan, 2010. Following the sudden death of his elder brother Zhang Shuwei (Zhang Shaohuai), 24-year-old university graduate Zhang Shuhao (Zhang Shuhao), inspired by his brother’s Riding Diaries, decides to undertake a bicycle ride from Lijiang, Yunnan province, China, to Lhasa, Tibet province, in memory of him. It was a journey that his brother always dreamed of making – a 1,800-kilometre ride that even professional riders need two weeks to do because of the constant changes in altitude and atmospheric pressure between 1,000 and 4,000 metres. Arriving in Yunnan – on what is his first trip to mainland China – Zhang Shuhao is met by a fellow Taiwanese who’s been living there for two years already and who cons him out of RMB3,500 for a fake identity card he’ll need on the road. On the first day of his bicycle ride, he finds the road outside Lijiang town is blocked by a landslide and he teams up with a professional local cyclist, Li Xiaochuan (Li Xiaochuan). On Day Five the two reach Deqin and then cross over into Tibet; the following day they reach Yanjing, where they stay overnight at the house of a young village widow (Li Tao), her son and in-laws. The young widow takes a liking to Zhang Shuhao, and he to her and her son, but next day Zhang Shuhao and Li Xiaochuan have to move on. During the next 19 days, Zhang Shuhao will find himself tested to the limits of his endurance and sanity as he pushes on regardless through extreme altitudes, deep snow, wild mastiffs and hostility by some locals, to reach Lhasa and fulfil his brother’s dream.

REVIEW

Starting routinely but morphing into an inspiring story of endurance and adult passage of rites, Kora 转山 is a remarkable feature debut by Shanghai-born director Du Jiayi 杜家毅, who was a producer on Forever Enthralled 梅兰芳 (2008) by Chen Kaige 陈凯歌 and played the hero’s comic sidekick in the costume drama Wheat 麦田 (2009) by the Mainland’s He Ping 何平. Based on a book by Taiwan writer Xie Wanglin 谢旺霖 that chronicled his own 60-day cycle trip in autumn 2004 using a third-person device – 转山  边境流浪者 (2008, literally “Round the Mountains: Roaming the Borders”) – the movie initially looks like a Mainland version of a Taiwan mini-genre, the cycling-movie-as-a-journey-of-personal-discovery (The Road in the Air 单车上路, 2005; Island Etude 练习曲, 2006). Ideal for such a geographically small territory like Taiwan, the films achieved mixed results artistically; but here, transferred to the vast stage of China – and especially the jaw-dropping scenery of the provinces of Yunnan and Tibet – the two-wheel road movie takes on a much deeper resonance, with our hero tested on every physical and psychological level, as well as being largely on his own in a land to which he’s a stranger.

After some routine early scenes in Taibei that provide the necessary motivation for the trip, the film dumps the wide-eyed youth down in southern China, where he’s soon scammed by a resident fellow Taiwanese. Isolated, but befriended by a gruff local cyclist – nicely played by Li Xiaochuan 李晓川 with a mixture of practicality and superior experience – young Zhang Shuhao embarks on an almost suicidal mission to fulfil the dream of an elder brother he idolised.

Though it’s always an eyeful thanks to the widescreen photography by ace d.p. Du Jie (Crazy Racer 疯狂的赛车, 2008; A Tale of Two Donkeys 走着瞧, 2008; Wind Blast 西风烈, 2010), the movie takes a while to engage the viewer on an emotional level. But in a beautifully drawn vignette almost halfway through – in which a young widow, subtly played by Li Tao 李桃 (youth TV drama Dream of Life  无憾青春, 2010), briefly savours and then loses her one hope of escaping a life of drudgery – Kora starts to grip the viewer as a human story rather than just a exercise in picture postcards. Starting with a sudden reversal that comes as a real surprise, the film’s focus tightens ever more closely on the protagonist, as his slow physical and spiritual degradation begins.

In the main role, and playing a character with the same name, Taiwan’s Zhang Shuhao 张书豪 (the confused hero of One Day 有一天, 2009) is okay in a performance that’s mostly physical. But it’s the high-quality technical package, incuding tight editing by China’s Xiao Yang 肖洋 (The Message 风声, 2009; Aftershock 唐山大地震, 2010; If You Are the One II 非诚勿扰II, 2010) that provides the dramatic stage on which he moves. The Chinese title roughly means “Round the Mountains”; the English title, Kora, is never explained, though it’s a Himalayan word meaning “Circumambulation”.

CREDITS

Presented by Taihe Universal Film Investment (CN), Millimetre Film (CN), Tibet Tourism (CN), Atom Cinema (TW). Produced by Taihe Universal Film Investment (CN), Millimetre Film (CN).

Script: Zhang Jialu, Cheng Xiaoze. Book: Xie Wanglin. Photography: Du Jie. Editing: Xiao Yang. Music: Oshima Michiru. Art direction: Wang Yi. Sound: Zhao Nan, Yang Jiang. Visual effects: Hu Xuan, Wang Jingpu (Beijing Miracle Film & TV).

Cast: Zhang Shuhao (Zhang Shuhao), Li Xiaochuan (Li Xiaochuan), Li Tao (young widow), Zhang Shaohuai (Zhang Shuwei), Tang Zhiping (Zhiping), Wang Yanhui (policeman), Yin Hang (Monica), Ge Tian (Judy), Gesangzhima (old Tibetan lady), Renqingqucuo (young widow’s son), Erang (doctor), Ding Zeng (girl), Zhang Xiuying (Zhang Shuhao’s mother), Chen Daozheng (Zhang Shuhao’s father), Niu Chengze (cyclist friend).

Premiere: Tokyo Film Festival (Competition), 24 Oct 2011.

Release: China, 3 Nov 2011; Taiwan, tba.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 25 Oct 2011.)