Mountain Patrol: Kekexili

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/ny-etret4700359apr14,0,4930351.story?coll=ny-moviereview-headlines

MOUNTAIN PATROL: KEKEXILI

(Unrated) The spirit of the hardboiled American Westerns of the 1950s wends its way through this moody, panoramic Chinese chase thriller. Based on true events, writer-director Lu Chuan's film deals with an undermanned, overmatched team of Tibetans, led by the laconic, enigmatic Captain Ri Tai (Duo Bujie), who struggle to keep antelope poachers out of the western Chinese mountain region of Kekexili. Not only do Ri Tau and his men risk death at the hands of the poachers, they also face threats from the treacherous territory whose wildlife they struggle to protect. Capricious, often brutal climate changes, thin air and, eventually, the land itself thin the patrol's ranks. And though he remains resolute and cool-headed throughout, Ri Tai's own emotions are bruised and strained by what he encounters in the long, hard pursuit of their ruthless prey. As you'd expect, Lu Chuan's cameras take in a lot of breathtaking scenery; the terrain emerges as an ambiguous, menacing character in its own right. But what makes him promising as a director is how he orchestrates the terror and tension among his all-too-human, all-too-vulnerable people. In Mandarin and Tibetan with English subtitles. 1:35 (violence).