Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Beijing Bicycle

Beijing Bicycle is a movie that directly translated from Chinese means “seventeen-year-old’s bicycle.” This movie was directed by a Sixth Generation Chinese filmmaker, Wang Xiaoshuai. When it first came out in 2001, the film was banned because the director did not make any changes based on the suggestion he was given. Eventually, the ban was lifted in 2004 after the required revisions were made.

This innovative and fresh movie brings new ideas into the representation of reality that filmmakers from the Sixth Generation focused on. The blunt true suffering of the characters expressed in the plot allowed the audience to connect to the experiences and feelings they were going through.

The story is about two seventeen-year-old kids, Guei and Jian. Guei, played by Cui Lin, came from the countryside to Beijing to find a better life. He ends up getting a job as a deliveryman, and he is provided with a new bicycle to do it. Jian, played by Li Bin, is also a seventeen-year-old schoolboy who comes from a humble family. He lived with the promise from his parents of getting a bicycle, but because of their economic situation, it never happened. Therefore, he ends up taking the money saved by his dad and buys a second-handed bicycle. Ironically, this bicycle ends us being the one stolen from Guei. By fate, these two boys end up meeting each other. The director tries to use the bicycle to represent the similarity in goals and dreams people have no matter their social economic status or their origin.

For Guei, coming to the city is like going to a new world. The people he sees and the experiences he has are totally new for him. He understands the luck he has to be able to get a job. Consequently, the bicycle he is assigned becomes the most valuable possession he could ever own. From the beginning of the film, we become sympathetic of him because of the misfortune he has to go through. In one scene, we find out that he was so poor in the countryside that he seemed to never have brushed his teeth before. As the audience, it is a situation that could be hard to imagine since we were born with all our basic needs covered. We are startled by our discovery and the difficulty to relate to him. At the same time, we feel pity for him and start imagining the life he might have had. Therefore, it becomes easy for us to understand his desire look for and protect his bicycle.

The bicycle becomes his only means to survive. After loosing it, he goes to all extend to look for it. His stubbornness is a characteristic we admire in him. He then becomes the hero of the story. The director does a great job portraying Guei as the representation of all countryside people. They are usually known as hardworkers, willing to give up everything they have for their job. The bicycle symbolizes his hopes and dreams for a better life in the city. His desire to protect this hopes and dreams is seen in all scenes where his bicycle is being taken away from him or being destroyed. He holds onto it and never lets go, protecting it like his own life.

For Jian, his life in the city is meaningless. He comes from a humble family that emphasizes on the importance of education. We learn in a fight with his father, that the accomplishments he had in life were based on his desire to obtain a bicycle. This was a promise made by his father that was never fulfilled because of different reasons. Therefore, he lived a life of disappointment for not being able to attain what he wanted. He, then, tries to get it on his own and buys a bicycle using the money his parents were saving. It is really hard to feel sympathetic with this character, although it is easier to relate to him. Not being able to get what we want when we are promised to causes us to feel upset.

The bicycle, for Jian, is important because it was part of his desire to be accepted by his fellow classmates and to impress the girl he likes. It becomes his motivation for life and it ends up symbolizing also, his dreams and aspirations. He even, ends up being blinded by his desire for a bicycle that he forgets his ultimate reason. After being able to attract the girl he likes, he gets carried away when Guei takes his bicycle. Jian immediately runs after him and forgets about the girl. It is when he actually loses her, that he remembers her importance.

It is remarkable to see the success of the director in portraying people’s motivation in just their desire for a material object. Even though Guei and Jian came from different backgrounds and had different goals in life, they were united by their own goals and dreams.

4 comments:

  1. I see it as very sad where much people don't care for the ones that are in need as you described. Many people, such as Jian, don't realize all the opportunities the have.I feel that this movie tries to describe those problems.

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  2. And of course we can definitely see that in modernized countries as well. We rarely care for the Third World Countries, and even if there are awareness for those countries, I feel many Americans will not sympathize but not empathize.

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  3. And of course we can definitely see that in modernized countries as well. We rarely care for the Third World Countries, and even if there are awareness for those countries, I feel many Americans will not sympathize but not empathize.

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  4. Jacky,

    I agree with you that “for Guei, coming to the city is like going to a new world.” Guei was not treated well by the other people in Beijing because he speaks with a strong accent and the people in Beijing can easily tell that he is from countryside. I also agree with you that “the bicycle becomes his only means to survive.” The film portrays that bicycles mean a lot for those people who live in Beijing. For the people from countryside like Guei, bicycles are something that they cannot easily afford even if they work hard for a long time. The film enables us to know the real situation going on in Beijing and how hard it is for the people from countryside to survive there.

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