There are perhaps multiple stories here, but make no mistake the star of the film is the Tibetan plateau surrounding Kekexili or Hoh Xil. The wilderness is breathtaking for the viewer, and literally so for some of the characters.
Often the cinematography steps back for sweeping vistas with the humans dwarfed by their surroundings. How small man is and by extension how small man's plans are; these feel like strong sub-themes at play here.
That said the primary story focuses on Ri Tai, based on a real-life Tibetan, and here cast in sort of an Ahab role. He glowers, but never flinches. His white whale is to track down the poachers; indeed my feeling was that Ri Tai's initial motivation to protect the native chiri or Tibetan antelope, became subsumed by his quest for frontier justice. His interaction with the elder antelope skinner Zhanlin Ma give the film a little breadth of perspective.
That said, while the climax of the film likely involves Ri Tai and his Ishmael aka Ga Yu, the embedded reporter with the patrol, I felt like a different climax hit earlier involving the Liu Duong character. He is a likable touchstone for myself, if not the audience at large.
Liu Duong is missing from the patrol gathering meeting at the outset of the film, as he's out carousing. Later he goes on a crucial life-saving mission for another wounded patrol member, and then wanders into his heart-of-gold girlfriend, a fishnet clad working barmaid. Say what you will of her job (the film is discreet certainly) but her work helps pay the way for the noble patrol.
Although there is some other questionable funding, which underscores the intertwined nature of hero and villain, both profiting from the antelope pelts. Granted we are led to believe one out of greed, and eco-warrior Ri Tai out of threadbare necessity. Still...like Batman and the Joker, one does not exist without the other.
By the way, Kekexili here is a man';s world, despite the nickname for the mountains. Liu Duong's girlfriend is one of two women briefly in the movie, the other is the saintly daughter of Ri Tai. Sort of a petite Madonna/Whore split. That seems to trouble people less than the animal cruelty, the latter surely is more frequent in real life than on screen here - but to be clear some scenes here are not for the faint-of-animal-heart.
Anyways, one other story perhaps worth unraveling by others is that this a Chinese movie, indeed based on a Beijing reporter's story involving Tibet. For now I will hope for best on the intentions behind that, as well as hope for the best for the chiri, whose numbers have risen to allegedly150,000 since the time of this tale.
Enjoy the film for its remarkable shots of nature while contemplating the complicated nature of man.
Often the cinematography steps back for sweeping vistas with the humans dwarfed by their surroundings. How small man is and by extension how small man's plans are; these feel like strong sub-themes at play here.
That said the primary story focuses on Ri Tai, based on a real-life Tibetan, and here cast in sort of an Ahab role. He glowers, but never flinches. His white whale is to track down the poachers; indeed my feeling was that Ri Tai's initial motivation to protect the native chiri or Tibetan antelope, became subsumed by his quest for frontier justice. His interaction with the elder antelope skinner Zhanlin Ma give the film a little breadth of perspective.
That said, while the climax of the film likely involves Ri Tai and his Ishmael aka Ga Yu, the embedded reporter with the patrol, I felt like a different climax hit earlier involving the Liu Duong character. He is a likable touchstone for myself, if not the audience at large.
Liu Duong is missing from the patrol gathering meeting at the outset of the film, as he's out carousing. Later he goes on a crucial life-saving mission for another wounded patrol member, and then wanders into his heart-of-gold girlfriend, a fishnet clad working barmaid. Say what you will of her job (the film is discreet certainly) but her work helps pay the way for the noble patrol.
Although there is some other questionable funding, which underscores the intertwined nature of hero and villain, both profiting from the antelope pelts. Granted we are led to believe one out of greed, and eco-warrior Ri Tai out of threadbare necessity. Still...like Batman and the Joker, one does not exist without the other.
By the way, Kekexili here is a man';s world, despite the nickname for the mountains. Liu Duong's girlfriend is one of two women briefly in the movie, the other is the saintly daughter of Ri Tai. Sort of a petite Madonna/Whore split. That seems to trouble people less than the animal cruelty, the latter surely is more frequent in real life than on screen here - but to be clear some scenes here are not for the faint-of-animal-heart.
Anyways, one other story perhaps worth unraveling by others is that this a Chinese movie, indeed based on a Beijing reporter's story involving Tibet. For now I will hope for best on the intentions behind that, as well as hope for the best for the chiri, whose numbers have risen to allegedly150,000 since the time of this tale.
Enjoy the film for its remarkable shots of nature while contemplating the complicated nature of man.