TIFF’s A Century of Chinese Cinema Review: Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2004)

Cast: Duobuji, Liang Qi, Xueying Zhao
Director: Chuan Lu
Country: China | Hong Kong
Genre: Action | Drama
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: The following review of Kekexili: Mountain Patrol is part of our coverage for TIFF’s A Century of Chinese Cinema which runs from June 5th to August 11th at TIFF Bell Lightbox. For more information of this unprecedented film series visit http://tiff.net/century and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.

Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2004) is a fascinating film that was based on a true story from 1996.  Ga Yu (Liang Qi) is a reporter from Beijing sent to do a story on the death of a man who was a volunteer patrolman on the Kekexili Mountain in Tibet.  These patrolmen were founded by Ritai (Duobuji) and seek to protect the Tibetan antelopes from poachers.  The hunting of these antelope was outlawed when their numbers dropped to approximately 10,000, but no one enforced the law because they did not live on a nature preserve and the Chinese government spent no money on protecting them, leaving them ripe for poaching.  Ritai founded his group of patrolmen in 1993 and had gotten into some serious battles with the poachers.

Now, with few men to keep watch, their resources stretched thin and the men going without pay for nearly a year, Ritai has a lead on the whereabouts of the primary hunters that kill thousands of antelope a year.  Taking Ga Yu with him, Ritai packs up as many men as he can spare to go after the hunters.

What follows is an interesting hybrid of life in the desolate ranges of Tibet and obsessive detective story.  We are treated (subjected?) to the realities these men face every day, including a man who’s been at the same guard station for three years because there is no one to relieve him.

What follows is an interesting hybrid of life in the desolate ranges of Tibet and obsessive detective story.  We are treated (subjected?) to the realities these men face every day, including a man who’s been at the same guard station for three years because there is no one to relieve him.  His radio is broken and has no idea that his colleague has been killed until he asks what the latest news is.

From there, Ritai’s group locates a group they think are the hunters, but it turns out that they are paid to skin the antelopes after the hunters have already killed them.  They could not leave because their truck broke down and could not be fixed.  The patrolmen take the skinners into custody and pile them into the back of their truck (they also have three jeeps).

As the tracking continues, one of the patrolmen has a heart attack and is saved by one of the skinners who was a medic in the army.  Two patrolmen, the skinner and the patient take a jeep back to town for a doctor, bringing down the amount of people to go after the hunters.

Then a jeep breaks down from lack of oil and constant driving for three straight days.  Three patrolmen are left to stay with the jeep.  Ritai is sure they will live…if it doesn’t snow.  As they continue their relentless hunt, they run low of supplies and gas and are forced to abandon the truck and release the prisoners who will also survive…if it doesn’t snow.

With only four people left to hunt the poachers, one of them is the reporter, the number eventually dwindles to just Ritai and Ga Yu.  The poachers are found but nothing can be done because Ritai is the only patrolman who finds them.

Director Chuan Lu creates a bold film here.  He doesn’t really try to dress it up with any kind of formalized narrative and ultimately makes the film more of a documentary or re-enactment than a fictional retelling of a true story.  He uses none of the common tropes or formulas that permeate American ‘based on a true story’ films and instead seeks to make something genuine and real.  He doesn’t sugarcoat these people’s lives or the situation they are in, nor does he give in to a happy ending.

Director Chuan Lu creates a bold film here.  He doesn’t really try to dress it up with any kind of formalized narrative and ultimately makes the film more of a documentary or re-enactment than a fictional retelling of a true story.

The only problem I have with his approach to realism is his lighting decisions.  He seems to use only natural light, or on screen lighting.  This is fine during the day and everything is beautiful, but at night he uses only a torch or the light streaming in from outside a car or something.  This means that for the most part you can only see parts of people’s faces, which is fine because it can amplify dramatic intent (like when one of the patrolmen who came back with his sick friend sees his girlfriend, they are in the back seat of a car and he is asleep. You can only see half of her face as she tells him she’s leaving and he should move on), but in the back of the truck with the prisoners and only a torch lighting the scene the only thing you can really see is the torch, and it adds nothing other than the fact that it’s dark.  It puts us right there with them, not knowing who is talking and so forth, but it was distracting to me.

Overall, Chuan has made a fantastic detective film.  He makes Ritai like the grizzled old detectives trying to solve the one case that always got away from them.  He doggedly pursues the poachers with a tenacity unmatched by his patrolmen, so it makes sense that he is the only one there when the poachers are found.  This obsession comes at great cost throughout the film, like it does for all obsessed detectives.  His pacing is slow but never, ever boring.  Chuan builds his story not to an action climax but to its natural conclusion.  There is no shoot-out, no big fight between Ritai and the leader of the poachers, just a verbal confrontation and an end I won’t disclose.

Kekexili: Mountain Patrol is not like a police procedural, but it maybe could have been in different hands.  Instead, it is loose detective story that treats the landscape like as much as an adversary as the poachers are.  Ritai tracks these poachers over many miles over more than a week with little rest, food, water or gas.  His pursuit costs him everything, but his end goal is ultimately achieved since the Chinese government does make the land a nature preserve and actual rangers are set up to patrol the grounds, not to mention it is now an international crime to sell Tibetan antelope wool.

The film works on many levels, but mostly that of how obsession can ruin a person’s life and the lives of those around them.  On the surface, it’s a retelling of a true story, but dig deeper and it’s an allegory for governance of passions and the dark path obsession can take a person down.

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Doug Heller

Sr. Staff Film Critic

I believe film occupies a rare place as art, entertainment, historical records and pure joy. I love all films, good and bad, from every time period with an affinity to Classical Hollywood in general, but samurai, sci-fi and noir specifically. My BA is in Film Studies from Pitt and my MA is in Education. My goal is to be able to ignite a love of film in others that is similar to my own.

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