The premiere of Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, the latest motion picture of Zhang Yimou, was held on Friday in Lijiang in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the movie's story takes place.

The public screening will begin on December 22 across China.

The local government in Lijiang, a world heritage site famous for its ancient town, held the traditional "chang zhuo yan" (grand banquet) to welcome the crew and hundreds of reporters from both China and abroad.

"Chang zhuo yan," a huge banquet with hundreds of adjoining dining tables extending for hundreds of metres, is the traditional way to receive distinguished guests to the town.

This banquet echoes a scene in the movie, in which the hero (played by 73-year-old Japanese actor Takakura Ken) receives a warm welcome by farmers in the Stone Village.

The director says the movie is tailor-made for Takakura Ken, whose movie The Man Who Wades the River of Rage was a big hit in China in the 1970s.

It was that movie which captured the hearts of millions of young people. It inspired Zhang to quit his job in a cotton mill to enrol at the Beijing Film Academy almost 30 years ago.

Since then Takakura has been his idol, and directing this movie is like realizing a dream, said Zhang.

Three-times Oscar nominee for the best foreign film award and a frequent awardee at Venice, Berlin and Cannes film festivals, Zhang is indisputably the most renowned Chinese director. He is also the most profitable director in the Chinese film business, which is still in the emerging stages of a market-oriented reform.

His previous two works, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, secured top box-office sales both at home and abroad of all the Chinese movies ever made.

However, Riding Alone appears to reverse the practices of his mega-productions in the past few years, which boast an impressive cast, beautifully shot scenery and thrilling martial arts sequences but arguably feature weak storylines.

This uncomplicated, affectionate tearjerker marks a return to the style of the director's earlier smaller-scale works.

The story focuses on an aging father (Takakura Ken) striving to revive his relationship with his adult son, a plot that aims to touch people's deepest sensitivities.

Zhang intentionally uses amateur actors and actresses to achieve a more documentary style effect. Except for Takakura Ken and the heroines of the film, all the remaining characters are played by their real life prototypes, who even keep their original names.

Zhang's efforts have not been futile. The movie was received with laughter and tears by the audience at the Lijiang film premiere.

Riding Alone is not quite the masterpiece of the director's defining work Red Sorghum. It does not have the epic qualities of To Live nor is it as visually stunning as The Road Home.

But it is still worth a look for its sincerity, especially following the numerous productions of empty big-budget Chinese movies featuring solely ostentatious action scenes.

(China Daily December 20, 2005)