Hen ni zai yi qi ("Together", 2002, directed by Kaige Chen)
Starring Yun Tang as Liu Xiaochun
Peiqi Liu as Liu Cheng
Zhiwen Wang as Prof. Jiang
Kaige Chen as Prof. Yu
Qian li zou dan qi ("Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", 2005, directed by Zhang Yimou)
starring Ken Takakura as Gou-ichi Takata
Lin Qiu as Lingo
Nothing happened by chance, and none happened with intention, either. It was by coincidence that all the following events occurred within these few days of June, when I and the rest of us are drawn to think about our fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, godfathers, stepfathers, and any other kind of father figure.
In the movie Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, I am reminded of what many fathers (including my own) have endured for the sake of their children. Takata embarks on a journey from Japan to China to finish a documentary film project for his son, who is dying from cancer, and from whom he has been estranged for many years. His intent was to finish filming for his son a performance of the Chinese folk opera "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles". The journey takes him from one remote village to the next, not unlike the character Lord Guan, who travels thousands of miles b/c of his loyalty to a friend. Takata-san finds himself isolated in a foreign language, unable to make meaning except through the assistance of friends and acquaintances he makes along the way. He faces the distances between him and his son, mirrored in the geographical distances separating them. I watched this film thinking about the journeys my own father and grandfather have made. One such journey was to traverse from Vietnam to America and then back to Vietnam. The distances back to Vietnam have always been longer, farther, and harder to understand.
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Last night, we attended a wake for Uncle FDC. He was a beautiful soul -- young, energetic, funny, and faithful. At 95 years old, he was still walking about Oakland Chinatown, still active in community activities, still a solid member of the church. His unexpected passing one week before Father's Day leaves a large vacuum in our midst. Our faith community has been upheld by Uncle F. for many years, and we continue to remember his wit, his love, and his energy.
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A friend of mine and his wife just last week celebrated the coming home of their adopted baby son. His entrance into the world, and into their lives, brings joy and hope. I see it in my friend's face as he talks about his son, as he gives me details about their adoption process. The photographs I see of the family are filled not just with baby pics but also with the presences of grandmas, grandpas, and relatives, and friends. Good friends who know what it means to welcome a bright new baby into our midst. Having gone out to a b-ball game on his very first Dad's Day, my friend experienced for the first time the absence of his son, the feeling of being not whole.
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Just last week, my friend's dad had to be hospitalized because of a lung infection. His many years of asthma has brought complications which he has continuously off and on. My friend and his sister take turns to visit him in the hospital, and even now I know not whether he has been released. The anxiety that I witness in my friend, the youngest son of five and whose eldest brother has been away from VN for almost two decades, is evident; he feels the burden of being the only son in the family. In one of our conversations, I foolishly ask if he'll be seeing his dad in the hospital on the morrow. And he said naturally. He brings breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and even visits when work allows him time away. Naturally.
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Liu Xiaochun is a pretty excellent violinist. And his father Liu Cheng does everything he can to give the young child what he deserves -- love, attention, guidance in music training, fame, fortune, integrity, honor. After reaching Beijing, Liu Cheng immerses himself looking for ways to survive and for ways his son can flourish. Their life together is meager but full. There are always obstacles standing in the path of their success (greed, dishonor, loss -- almost everything that threatens their existence). They overcome these obstacles and are reconciled. They learn what it means to have everything and not each other. Father and son reconnect and I am so moved by the end of the film that I cry without reservation. But what amazed me the most in this movie, was not the beautiful music or the spare, precise acting. It was in the details of the father's character: The hunched over back that he carries b/c of years of servitude and humility, not just obeisance, to others of higher rank and fortune. The one little sock with a hole where the big toe protrudes, and which he has tied together with a little rubber band. The unabashed manner with which the father removes his shoes in front of the large, spotlessly clean condo of his son's rich and famous music instructor. All of these are images belonging to many father figures that I've seen and known. They are, to me, the most beautiful.
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