Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Bejing Bicycle Review

“Bejing Bicycle” is about a migrant worker Xiao Gui and his mountain bicycle cause a series of troubles and the result of these troubles. In the film, Wang Xiaoshuai uses a speech from the manager of the delivery company to represent that a bicycle is not only a means of transportation but also a wealth and power. It is a bridge for Xiao Gui going to big city life and a “weapon” for Xiao Jian to show off his power in front of his friends.

Xiao Gui is a low class worker from country side which seems to determine his fate in the city. Xiao Jian is a city boy whose family also consider as low class in this city. These two seventeen years old boys indicates the theme: no matter where you are, what your identity is, your youth life is cruel. In Xiao Gui’s world, the delivery company, work, bicycle, city people and their rules have control of his life. When he entered the hotel and took shower by mistake, he was crying, “ I have no money”, which can be a director’s black humor of the difference between urban farmers and city life in a helpless tune. In Xiao Jian’s world, mountain bicycle is powerful tool to get his friend jealousy. Because this bicycle, he can be part of the ganster-wanna-be or “cool group” and get the girl he likes. His father keeps breaking his promises of buying Xiao Jian a bicycle because his father always uses extra money for Xiao Jian’s step sister. He began to doubt the whole world. He stole his father’s 500 Yuan which he thinks they belong to him and bought a bicycle from a flea market. Both Xiao Jian and Xiao Gui struggled with the power in their society, but they received their punishment by losing the bicycle along with everything that the bicycle had brought to them.

The movie represents people who were born in 80’s and their youth life. I truly feel the pain of losing bicycles from this movie. When I was around their age, I did not have a fansy bicycle like my classmates did. We went home together with four or five friends most of the time. I still remember I was always jealous of their nice bikes and I kept looking for a nice bike that had a good price. I finally felt I was a part of them until I got an brand new blue mountain bike instead of grandma’s old green bike. But the happiness did not last long. My bike got stolen a week later. Then the cycle started over again: Looking at coupons for cheap nice looking bikes and being jealous of friends’ nice bike. It might sound stupid for most of you, but this was really how we grew up in China if your family does not have much money. In my case, my parents always said not to compare with others over luxury stuff which I now really appreciate the way my parents educated me. And for almost 20 years I thought my family was really poor until my parents moved to U.S six years ago. It never occurred to me why two engineers would not earn enough for a mountain bike at the time. I can still remember I got my bike from Carrefour supermarket and it was 191 Yuan. It was royal blue with gold patterns on it.

An interesting detail from this movie is the style of those gangsters. They all have long hair that covers half of their face, maybe dyed yellow, and always smoking cigarette. I think the Hong Kong series movies “The Gangsters” from Wai Keung Lau in 90’s have a huge influence on many youth all over Mainland China.

Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Beijing Bicycle” has a similar story of a 1948’s Italian movie “ Ladridi biciclelle”(Bicycle Thief). Wang Xiaoshuai said, both movies are about the importance of a bicycle for a low class family and their fate in the whole society.



not me22flatt

4 comments:

  1. People from the city do not seem welcome in the city. These people, however, come to the city with only one dream: to get a better life. Although we see in the movie the struggles they have to go through in a new place, we also see their values and character that teach us a lot about them. Because they come to the city by themselves, they do not know anyone who can help them. They work very hard and even in situations when we would normally give up, they tend to continue until they succeed. This strive is shown in the movie when Guei has his bike stolen. He tries to hold onto to the little hope he has to find his bike. He begs the manager to give him another opportunity to work. He does not give up because he knows that the chance he had to work in the courier is hard to get. He understand the importance of his job being the only way he could ever get a better life in the city. His stubbornness becomes a character to be admired from him since that what a lot of people lack.

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  2. 'Wow' to Shengya's story. I mean, although I've never really owned a bike nor have I lived in China, this entire movie was heart-wrenching to me. I could only imagine how it might feel to people who have actually experienced this and had this movie remind them of that experience. Literally, throughout the whole movie it felt as if someone was squeezing my heart. I felt so bad for Guei. Ultimately, this was the feeling the director was aiming to achieve from his audience. He mentioned in his interview that he wanted the portray the feeling one gets when something they rely on in their everyday life gets taken away.

    Also, Shengya - I can totally relate to you and how your parents told you not to compare luxuries with other people :)

    Jacky made an excellent point about working hard and never giving up. I like how you took notice and compared Guei's perseverance and struggle to the attitudes of country people coming to the city for a better life. This is a trait that should definitely be admired because he never backed down...even in the end when he carried his bike away from the fight scene.

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  3. to Karen--

    "Literally, throughout the whole movie it felt as if someone was squeezing my heart. I felt so bad for Guei."

    I was almost pissed that Guei couldn't fight for himself at all. He didn't do anything! But then i realized i was just as chicken as him when i got picked on. haha.

    To Jacky--

    "His stubbornness becomes a character to be admired from him since that what a lot of people lack. "

    Totally.

    But on the other side, stubbornness brought him all the troubles.

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  4. I agree with that his stubbornness got him into all the trouble. The fact that he worked so hard to find his bicycle and that he actually found it when there's so many bicycles everywhere was kind of hard to wrap my head around. I think at some parts, his stubbornness was kind of frustrating to me.

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