Li, a practical-minded policeman nearing retirement, and his partner Zhang Lei, a rookie cop and a bit of a dreamer, have a mission: to escort swindler Yu Tai to Beijing for trial. Yu, tired of life on the run, has given himself up to the cops to save himself the train fare back to the capital. After a rousing opening, with the cops barely escaping from an enraged mob of villagers, the film settles into an unexpectedly offbeat road movie, slipping into comedy, romance melodrama with a dash of male bonding as the naive Zhang Lei is charmed by the worldly-wise Yu.
Their trip is forestalled by a seemingly endless series of obstacles: from rockslides to Zhang Lei having his money and ID stolen and the flirtations of an innkeeper who takes them in. But these obstacles afford them the chance to chat, bicker, dream, argue: scenes which fill the movie with a generous helping of comic relief. Not to mention a family drama subplot: the problems an adolescent rural boy faces growing up with a single parent.
Tying all these disparate elements together are superb comic performances by the main actors. Ge Zhijun (The Story of Qiu Ju, Ermo) won Best Actor and Fu Biao (Dream Factory, Sorry Baby) Best Supporting Actor Awards at the 2001 Golden Rooster Awards for their funny detailed portraits of men divided by the roles society forces on them but drawn together by the discovery of what they have in common. Escort is also fascinating to watch for its unadorned Shaanxi landscapes and scruffy villages, through which the men trek on their long, constantly deflected quest to Beijing. A rough and ready shooting style is entirely appropriate to the film, whose solid scripting and unhurried pace fit perfectly with its setting.