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Zhang Yimou is a master of intimate character pieces.

Ken Takakura, a great rain-creased oak of an actor, delivers a quietly massive performance.

This new picture will reach only a few devoted American spectators. That's too bad, because once you get used to the apparent flatness and emotional reserve of this picture, it's a sad, slyly comic tale of family trauma and reconciliation that packs a wallop.

A simple, low-budget, contempo dramedy -- with plenty of clever plot reversals.

A little uncanny (has it been digitally manipulated?) and a whole lot clichéd, the tableau speaks of melancholy graced by a pale sliver of hope. You'd roll your eyes if they weren't so dazzled.

Unlikely to be ranked as one of Zhang's greatest accomplishments but is clearly the work of a major filmmaker. It is best seen as a heartfelt tribute to Takakura, as heroic and enduring a star as John Wayne.

Slow and pretty and duller than you'd hope for from an art-house sophisticate like Zhang.

This is not storytelling by a confident artist. Even Zhang's former mastery of visual form has become shaky, with a pedestrian handling of dramatic scenes and a surfeit of picture-postcard landscape shots.

Riding Alone features a moving performance by Takakura (often called the Asian Clint Eastwood), as well as pretty cinematography. But the mushy script, co-written by Zhang, never rises above that of a TV soap opera.

Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou has created so many memorable films (most recently the wuxia double-play "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers") that one can easily excuse his new clinker Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.