Shiqi sui de dan che. Guei, a new arrival to Beijing gets a job as a bicycle messenger. When his bike is stolen he comes up against the hard rules and hard faces of the city in trying to recover his property. In portraying his inexorable fate the film has drawn obvious comparisons with De Sica's classic Bicycle Thieves.
Beijing Bicycle, by Sixth Generation director Wang Xiaoshuai, is an unsettling look at modern China in transition that depicts the relationship between two young men o... more >
Beijing Bicycle, by Sixth Generation director Wang Xiaoshuai, is an unsettling look at modern China in transition that depicts the relationship between two young men of different social status, both yearning for acceptance and stubbornly determined to succeed. Guei (Cui Lin) is an inexpressive working class 17-year old who has come to Beijing to find work, while Jian (Li Bin), is a sophisticated middle-class student, desperate to belong, seeking approval from his biker friends and his beautiful girlfriend Gin (Zhao Yiwel). The film explores the consequences when Guei's bicycle is stolen and ends up in Jian's hands.
For Guei, the bicycle is a means of access to a job, an income, and survival. For Jian, it is the pathway to being "cool" and being in the in-group, much like what the flashy sports car represents to young men in Western countries. As the film opens, a group of boys are being interviewed for a job as a courier. Enticed by the prospect of owning a silver m ountain bicycle, Guei takes the job and begins to save money to buy the bike, given to him as a loan.
When Guei's bike is stolen just one day before he can become the owner, Guei's job is threatened. In a city where bicycles are still the most common means of transportation, Guei sets out, against all odds, to find it. The film is about the bicycle, but is also about the city of Beijing. Guei's search for the bicycle takes him into all corners of the city. With an original score by Felix Wang and magnificent cinematography by Jie Liu, the city comes alive, with streets littered with traffic juxtaposed with mysterious alleys where old men play board games or do Tai Chi. Like De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, the stolen bicycle is central to the story, but here it is not about the hunt but about the consequences that follow from its recovery.
Beijing Bicycle is a deeply human odyssey that never loses its rhythm. Though there is little dialogue and the characters communicate mostly with body language, long silences, and facial expressions, the actors perform their roles with authenticity. Parts of the film are emotionally upsetting, but there is also a sweet innocence at play. Jian acts like a typical adolescent - surly, angry with his parents, shy with girls, audacious and impetuous one minute, and then needy and contrite the next. In one scene, as a group of punks chase two boys through a an older section of Beijing; one says to the other, "What are you doing? This doesn't concern you." The other replies, "I don't know my way out." In today's new China, caught between the traditions of an ancient culture and the new urban reality, young people are having trouble finding their way out. < less
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