Xian Province, China, 1923 (though i have no idea why the year of the
events is important, the story is so not tied into its time it could have
taken place 100 or 200 years earlier just as well): Norbu (Tseshan Rigzin)
is expelled from his tribe with his wife (Dan Jiji) and son (Jayang Jamco)
after it's found out he's a horse thief. And while the family tries to
make it on its own, Norbu tries to make amends for his evil ways and find
decent work - but to little avail, there is just no work around for him.
To make matters worse, his son eventually dies (but his wife is quick to give him a new one), and
eventually they are even robbed by horse thieves of exactly the kind Norbu
has been in his past life. Even Norbu's efforts to catch up with his own tribe
once again add up to naught when he learns that disaster has struck since
his departure and they have moved to God-knows-where. Ultimately, Norbu
is back to his old tricks, stealing horses, and this time, out of
necessity, his wife has become his accomplice - but when they are caught
red-handed and hunted by those they have robbed, Norbu is at least decent
enough to lure their pursuers away from his wife and son's trail to ensure
they survive ... There is one aspect about The Horse Thief
you just cannot denie: On a visual level, it's a flawless film. Plus, it's
a film that presumably plays well with the world cinema crowd, because it's
full of native rituals of any kind which I at least suppose to be
authentic. Other than that though, there is little nice to say about The
Horse Thief: It's quite clearly a film that puts way too much emphasis
on its pittoresque aspects to function on a narrative level, invariably
puts the representation of yet another ritual over decent storytelling, yet all these beautiful
pictures and exotic rituals quickly become hollow without a story or at
least a background to give them meaning - and thus, the film is little
more than pretty pictures that amount to something very boring. To
sum it up, a piece of world cinema that makes all the wrong choices.
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